In light of the widespread layoffs of workers… roadblock‘s Jack Dorsey He sees AI replacing middle managers in companies.
Dorsey, co-founder and CEO of the financial services/technology company, floated the idea on Tuesday (March 31) in Blog post Co-written by Sequoia Capital partner Roelof BothaClaiming that AI could replace the “traditional hierarchy” of management.
“At Block, we question a fundamental assumption: that organizations should be structured hierarchically with humans as the coordination mechanism. Instead, we intend to replace what hierarchy does,” Dorsey and Botha wrote.
“Most companies using AI today give everyone a co-pilot, making the current structure work a little better without changing it. We’re after something different: a company built on intelligence (or mini-AI).”General artificial intelligence“)
While a manager in a traditional company is tasked with knowing what his team is doing and relaying that information along the chain, things are different in a “remote-first” environment like Block’s, the publication said.
“In a remote-first company, where the work is already machine-readable, AI can continually build and maintain that picture,” the blog post continued.
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Block announced last February that it would reduce its employment levels from more than 10,000 workers to just under 6,000, which is a very large number. More severe reduction than was initially reported.
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“The basic premise is simple. Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company,” Dorsey said on an earnings call shortly after the cuts.
“I don’t think we’re coming to this realization early. I think most companies are late.” He added, “A Much smaller team With the tools we build we can do more and do it better. The capabilities of intelligence tools multiply faster every week.
As PYMNTS wrote after the layoffs, Block’s move is in line with A.J Greater transmission It occurs in technology and financial services companies. As AI increasingly crafts code, automates internal documentation, analyzes risk signals, and handles customer support, the amount of human labor needed for some workflows is changing. Companies are reconsidering team size compared to production.
The report also pointed to a column from PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster saying that 2026 marks the year Adopting artificial intelligence It moves from “pilot to operational reality,” with AI integrated into payments flows, customer engagement systems, and enterprise software suites.
“The cluster operates directly in that environment,” PYMNTS added. “Payment processing, merchant services and peer-to-peer finance are data-intensive areas where AI can significantly reduce friction and manual effort.”
