CEO Jack Dorsey issued a dire warning about AI's impact as he cuts Block by almost half

Core Insights - Block CEO Jack Dorsey has warned about the impact of AI on employment, particularly emphasizing that many companies are late to realize its implications [1] - Block is transitioning to a "smaller, faster, intelligence-native company" by cutting approximately 40% of its workforce, which consists of 11,000 employees [1] - Dorsey highlighted that AI is significantly enhancing productivity within Block, with engineering output per engineer increasing by over 40% since September [4] Company Strategy - The company is streamlining operations due to identified "duplication" within its workforce, aiming to improve efficiency through AI [3] - Block is focusing on expanding its senior engineering talent specifically in AI, despite the overall reduction in workforce [4] - Dorsey predicts that more companies will adopt AI to drive efficiency gains, positioning Block ahead of this trend [3] AI Capabilities - Dorsey noted a significant leap in AI capabilities that occurred in December of the previous year, which has surpassed Block's internal tool, Goose, used for coding and repetitive tasks [2] - The company is leveraging AI tools that allow a smaller team to achieve more efficient and higher-quality work [2]