Block co-founder Jack Dorsey, alongside lead independent director Roelof Botha, has published a vision for a future workplace where artificial intelligence supplants the traditional role of middle managers. This comes just weeks after the company, formerly known as Square, executed a massive restructuring in February, cutting roughly 40% of its workforce—approximately 4,000 employees out of more than 10,000.
In a blog post titled "From Hierarchy to Intelligence," Dorsey and Botha argue that corporate hierarchies, while historically effective, are now too slow. They posit that AI can track projects, identify issues, assign work, and share critical information faster than humans, providing a real-time operational picture. "We're questioning the underlying assumption: that organizations have to be hierarchically organized with humans as the coordination mechanism," they wrote. "Instead, we intend to replace what the hierarchy does."
The proposed model involves two AI-driven "world models." One aggregates internal data from code, decisions, and workflows to create a continuous view of company operations. The other maps customer and merchant behavior using transaction data from Cash App and Square. These feed an "intelligence layer" that dynamically composes financial products based on market demand.
Organizationally, Block plans to transition to a structure with just three employee roles: "individual contributors" who build systems, "directly responsible individuals" who own specific outcomes on 90-day cycles, and "player-coaches" who mentor while remaining hands-on with technical work. Dorsey emphasized this was not merely a cost-cutting measure but a "permanent restructuring" triggered by a capability shift he observed in AI tools like Anthropic’s Opus 4.6 and OpenAI’s Codex 5.3 in December.
Despite the ambitious vision, internal challenges remain. Current and former Block employees told The Guardian that roughly 95% of AI-generated code still requires human modification, and AI tools cannot yet lead in heavily regulated areas like banking. Notably, some staff laid off in February were quietly brought back in March, underscoring the transitional nature of the shift. Dorsey and Botha maintain that humans will retain key roles in making business and ethical decisions.
