Jack Dorsey's Block to lay off 4,000 employees in AI remake

By Mucahithan Avcioglu

ISTANBUL (AA) - Financial technology company Block, the owner of the mobile payment and finance app Cash App, announced late Thursday that it will lay off more than 4,000 employees as the firm embraces AI.

Block, founded by Jack Dorsey -- the co-founder of Twitter, now known as X -- released its financial results for the fourth quarter of last year.

In a letter to shareholders regarding the company’s balance sheet, Block Co-Founder Dorsey said: “Today we shared a difficult decision with our team. We're reducing Block by nearly half, from over 10,000 people to just under 6,000, which means that over 4,000 people are being asked to leave or entering into consultation."

Dorsey stated that he believes this is the right course of action for the company and outlined the reasons behind the decision.

Pointing to the growing impact of artificial intelligence tools, Dorsey noted that they are fundamentally changing what it means to build and run a company.

“We're already seeing it internally. A significantly smaller team, using the tools we're building, can do more and do it better. And intelligence tool capabilities are compounding faster every week,” he said.

Dorsey said he does not believe the company is early in recognizing the shift, arguing instead that most firms are behind the curve. Over the next year, he expects the majority of companies to come to the same conclusion and undertake similar structural changes.

He added that he would rather make these adjustments proactively and transparently, on the company’s own terms, than be compelled to act in response to external pressures.