Jack Dorsey Recasts Block as an A.I.-First Company

In December, Jack Dorsey reached a blunt conclusion: A.I. was advancing too quickly to remain a side project at his fintech company, Block—it had to be at the center of it. Yesterday (Feb. 26), Dorsey unveiled what he called “one of the hardest decisions in the history of our company”: Block will cut roughly 40 percent of its workforce, reducing headcount from about 10,000 employees to 6,000. The move, he said, reflects how A.I.-powered productivity is changing the economics of running a company.

Block, the parent company of Square and Cash App, has expanded rapidly in recent years. At the end of 2019, it employed fewer than 4,000 people. But Dorsey was clear that the layoffs are not about financial distress or overhiring.

“We’re not making this decision because we’re in trouble,” he said. “Something has changed. We’re already seeing that the intelligence tools we’re creating and using, paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes 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, with gross profit rising 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. Employees affected by the layoffs will receive 20 weeks of salary, six months of health coverage and an additional $5,000.

Inside Block, A.I. is already woven into daily work. Goose, the company’s internal A.I. agent, began as a coding assistant and now saves engineers eight to ten hours a week. It has since spread to nontechnical teams for software and workflow tasks. As of last September, Goose was on track to save 25 percent of employee time in 2025 across the company.

The technology is also becoming central to Block’s products. Square now offers Square AI, a conversational assistant for merchants, along with ManagerBot, which automates tasks like inventory ordering and budgeting. Cash App users can tap into MoneyBot, a personalized assistant designed to answer financial questions and track spending and savings.

Dorsey’s ambitions go further. Beyond embedding A.I. directly into its services, Block ultimately wants customers to build their own A.I. tools on top of its platform. “I intend that we win in this space, and that we grow and bring this intelligence to both sellers and to individuals,” he said during the earnings call, adding that the company’s real-time consumer data is its “biggest advantage” in anticipating users’ A.I. needs.

For Dorsey, the debate isn’t whether A.I. will reshape corporate structures, but how quickly leaders are willing to adapt. “I had two options: cut gradually over months or years as this shift plays out, or be honest about where we are and act on it now,” he said in announcing the layoffs. To avoid repeated rounds of cuts and prolonged uncertainty, he chose the latter.

Block may be the most dramatic example yet of A.I. reducing the need for human staff, but it is hardly alone. In recent months, Silicon Valley has seen a wave of A.I.-linked layoffs and restructuring plans from companies including Salesforce, Microsoft, Duolingo and Amazon—particularly in roles tied to coding and software development.

If anything, Block is not early but late, Dorsey said. “Within the next year, I believe the majority of companies will reach the same conclusion and make similar structural changes,” he told analysts yesterday. “I’d rather get there honestly and on our own terms than be forced into it reactively.”