Jack Dorsey’s Block laid off 40% of its employees as part of a massive overhaul to embed artificial intelligence across its operations. That move saw over 4,000 of the company’s employees being let go across role.
Ivan Ureña-Valdes, a data analyst at Block, was also among those who were affected. When he received the haunting email from Jack Dorsey, Ureña-Valdes was in the middle of interviewing a company, Business Insider reported.
He was the sole provider for his family, and the former Block employee described his ordeal as ‘tough’.
Calling his feeling “really bad”, Ureña-Valdes said, “I had to tell them (the person being interviewed), “I was actually just let go from the company. I probably won’t be able to submit your feedback in time. Please reach out to your recruiter.””
In a post on social media platform X, Dorsey said the Block layoffs were just the beginning, and he expects majority of companies to reach the same conclusion making similar structural changes.
“Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company. We’re already seeing it internally. A significantly smaller team using the tools can do more and do it better,” Dorsey wrote in his post.
AI layoffs were coming
Writing on Business Insider, Ivan Ureña-Valdes said that he had survived three layoffs at Block but did not see the latest one coming. He was of the impression that the Block layoffs due to performance were already done.
“For 4,000-plus people to be cut without anybody knowing, that tells me decisions were made very high up,” he wrote.
The three layoffs that he survived were companywide as well as engineering organisation-wide.
“I knew I wasn’t being let go for performance-related reasons. I was in the middle of working on two large projects, probably the largest projects I’d worked on since joining the company,” he said.
Dorsey said Block opted for a single deep round of cuts instead of multiple smaller layoffs over time. He said a smaller company would also give it space to grow the business the right way, instead of constantly reacting to market pressures.
Ureña-Valdes told Business Insider that he had a ‘hunch’ that AI-related layoffs were coming. “I just didn’t think it would be right now.”
Investors have been rewarding companies that show AI-driven cost savings, and the sharp workforce reduction signals the scale at which the technology is starting to translate into lower expenses and higher margins in some industries.
On Friday, Block’s shares closed with a 16.75% increase, its second straight day of rally following the announcement.
AI will keep replacing jobs
The former Block data analyst agreed with Jack Dorsey and said that AI will continue to replace jobs.
“Given that we live in the US, where growth is everything, it’s inevitable that AI will continue to replace people wherever it’s financially beneficial to do so,” he said.
Given that we live in the US, where growth is everything, it’s inevitable that AI will continue to replace people wherever it’s financially beneficial to do so.
Ureña-Valdes said that he had in recent times been clearly able to see how AI was quickly replacing his own work, being able to solve things in a flash even with large datasets.
“It was definitely a ‘whoa’ moment when I realized just how powerful things had gotten,” he said.
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