Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey cuts nearly half of Block staff, says AI is changing how the company operates

Block, the owner of Cash App, has reduced its workforce from more than 10,000 to just under 6,000, with Dorsey arguing that AI tools and smaller teams are reshaping how the business is run

Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter, has cut nearly half the workforce at his financial technology company Block, saying artificial intelligence tools are transforming how the business operates.

Block, which owns the payments service Cash App, reduced its headcount from more than 10,000 employees to just under 6,000 on Thursday, according to The Independent. Dorsey described the move as “one of the hardest decisions in the history of our company”.

In a post on X, the platform he co-founded, Dorsey wrote: “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.”

The move places Block among a number of technology companies investing more heavily in AI while restructuring their workforces, although Dorsey has framed the changes as part of a broader shift towards smaller, flatter teams rather than a response to financial distress.

He made clear the redundancies were not because the company was “in trouble”, adding that “gross profit continues to grow,” as reported by The Independent.

In a letter to shareholders announcing the job cuts alongside fourth-quarter earnings, Dorsey reported gross profit of $2.87 billion, up 24 per cent from the previous year.

Employees reportedly told The New York Times that during a company-wide virtual meeting about the job losses, Dorsey was met with dozens of “thumbs down” emojis.

Dorsey said on X that staff who lost their jobs would receive 20 weeks of salary plus an additional week for every year worked at the company, along with six months of healthcare and $5,000 “to put toward whatever you need to help you in this transition.”

“To those of you leaving…i’m grateful for you, and i’m sorry to put you through this,” he wrote.

Block’s stock was reported to have risen by nearly five per cent at the close of trading on Thursday.

READ MORE: ‘Why the real barrier to AI success sits in the boardroom‘. Billions are being invested in artificial intelligence, yet many organisations still struggle to turn those ambitions into meaningful results. Here, Dr Dorottya Sallai, the Associate Professor (Education) of Management at the London School of Economics, reflects on why outcomes hinge less on technical systems and far more on leaders who understand context, culture and the people they are guiding through change.

Do you have news to share or expertise to contribute? The European welcomes insights from business leaders and sector specialists. Get in touch with our editorial team to find out more.

_{Main image: Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and chief executive of Block, photographed in Washington, D.C., in 2018. Credit: Mark Warner / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)}