Entrepreneur magazine says Block co-founder Jack Dorsey pointed to AI as the reason he was letting go of shedloads of staff, but analysts think it was more likely due to poor management.
For those who came in late, Block chopped 4,000 jobs and tried to blame the robots for it, claiming that AI tools now allow fewer employees to accomplish the same work.
However, analysts see poor management as a more likely reason. Block more than tripled its headcount between 2019 and 2022, swelling from 3,835 to 12,430 staff, then watched its share price sink 40 per cent since early 2025.
Financial Technology Partners analyst Zachary Gunn told Bloomberg, “This is more about the business being bloated for so long than it is about AI.”
That is where “AI-washing” comes in, with firms waving artificial intelligence around to make old-fashioned cost cuts look like science fiction progress.
Goldman Sachs economists estimate that AI is eliminating only 5,000 to 10,000 jobs a month across US sectors, which makes Block’s bloodletting look like a choice rather than a necessity.
Bloomberg reports European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde told lawmakers in Brussels last week that ECB economists are watching for AI job losses and are ‘not yet seeing’ the ‘waves of redundancies that are feared’.
