Block, the fintech group headed by Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, will cut its workforce by “nearly half” in one of the clearest signs of the sweeping changes AI tools are having on employment.
Shares in the payment company soared more than 25 percent in after-hours trading on Thursday as it announced it would shed more than 4,000 jobs from its 10,000-strong workforce.
“Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company. We’re already seeing it internally,” Dorsey wrote in a letter to shareholders.
“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.”
Dorsey, who left his role as CEO of Twitter in 2021, is among the first Silicon Valley chiefs to explicitly tie huge job cuts to the ability of AI to replace human workers.
Amazon has sought to play down the link to AI after announcing lay-offs totaling 30,000 roles since October, months after CEO Andy Jassy warned the technology would mean “fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today” in the coming years, especially in white-collar roles.
Dorsey said he did not think he was early to the realization about the effect that AI could have on work, but that “most companies are late.”
He said he expected a “majority of companies” would reach the same conclusion within the next year and make similar structural changes.