I just saw a very interesting move by Block that deserves attention. The company announced layoffs of over 4,000 employees — reducing its workforce from 10,000 to less than 6,000 — but here’s the curious detail: revenue increased by about $220 million compared to the previous quarter. The stock surged nearly 24% after the announcement.

Jack Dorsey, co-founder and CEO, was very direct in the letter to shareholders: artificial intelligence fundamentally changed how a company is built and managed. He even predicts that most companies will reach the same conclusion in the next 12 months and make similar adjustments.

What draws attention is that Block is not among the first. Amazon cut 16,000 employees in January, attributing this to cost reductions while increasing spending on AI. Pinterest laid off about 15% of its workforce by reallocating resources to AI-focused products. Salesforce, Klarna, and Accenture also followed this path.

Dorsey made it clear: "I don’t think we’re at the beginning of this perception. I think most companies are behind." And that makes sense when you see executives like Gustav Söderström, co-CEO of Spotify, commenting that the company’s top developers "haven’t written a single line of code" in 2026, using only AI for software design.

Block is particularly aggressive with Bitcoin — integrating Bitcoin payments into Square and Cash App, operating the Bitkey ( self-custody hardware wallet, and even developing its own mining machines. Dorsey also mentioned that the company hired too many during COVID because it built two separate corporate structures instead of one, something they corrected in mid-2024. Now they are paying the price for that delayed structure with these massive cuts.

The market seems to be absorbing the message well: efficiency via AI is the new standard. While some are worried that the AI boom will harm investors and slow growth, companies are moving quickly. The trend is expected to accelerate from here.