In December, Jack Dorsey came to an unequivocal conclusion: AI was advancing too quickly to remain a side project at his fintech company, Block—it should be at its center. Yesterday (Feb. 26), Dorsey revealed what he called “one of the most difficult decisions in our company’s history”: Block will cut about 40 percent of its workforce, reducing its workforce from about 10,000 employees to 6,000. The move, he said, shows how AI-powered manufacturing is changing the economics of running a company.
Block, the parent company of Square and Cash App, has grown rapidly in recent years. At the end of 2019, it employed less than 4,000 people. But Dorsey was clear that the layoffs are not about financial distress or overstaffing.
“We are not taking this decision because we are in trouble,” he said. “Something has changed. We are realizing that the intellectual tools we are building and using, combined with small and agile teams, are enabling a new way of working that is fundamentally changing what it means to build and run a company.”
Financially, Block appears healthy. The company yesterday reported better-than-expected revenue for the final quarter of 2025, and net profit rose 24 percent year-over-year to $2.87 billion. Cash App’s monthly active users jumped by 10 million from the previous quarter to 59 million. Workers affected by the layoffs will receive 20 weeks of pay, six months of health care and an additional $5,000.
Inside the Block, AI is already woven into everyday work. Goose, the company’s internal AI agent, started as a coding assistant and now saves developers eight to ten hours a week. It has since spread to non-technical teams with software and workflow functions. As of last September, Goose was on track to save 25 percent of employee time by 2025 across the company.
Technology is also at the heart of Block’s products. Square now offers Square AI, a chat assistant for sellers, and ManagerBot, which automates tasks like inventory ordering and budgeting. Cash App users can access MoneyBot, a personal assistant designed to answer financial questions and track spending and savings.
Dorsey’s ambitions go further. Besides embedding AI directly into its services, Block ultimately wants customers to build AI tools on top of its platform. “I intend for us to win in this space, and for us to grow and bring this intelligence to both retailers and individuals,” he said during the earnings call, adding that the company’s real-time consumer data is “a huge asset” in anticipating users’ AI needs.
For Dorsey, the debate is not whether AI will reshape corporate structures, but how willing leaders are to adapt. “I had two options: cut back little by little over months or years as this transition continues, or be honest about where we are and do something about it now,” he said in announcing the layoffs. To avoid repeated cuts and prolonged uncertainty, he chose the latter.
Block may be the most dramatic example yet of AI reducing the need for human workers, but it’s not the only one. In recent months, Silicon Valley has seen a wave of AI-related layoffs and restructuring plans from companies including Salesforce, Microsoft, Duolingo and Amazon—mostly in roles tied to coding and software development.
If anything, Block is too late, Dorsey said. “Within the next year, I believe most companies will come to the same conclusion and make similar structural changes,” he told analysts yesterday. “I’d rather get there honestly and our way than be forced into it.”
