Block co-founder Jack Dorsey has outlined a vision for a workplace where artificial intelligence could replace middle managers, just weeks after the company laid off roughly 4,000 employees amid its AI initiatives.
In a blog post on Tuesday, Dorsey and Block’s lead independent director, Roelof Botha, explained that AI can monitor projects, flag issues, assign tasks, and share key information more efficiently than humans. They noted that Block is still in the “early stages” of adopting a model where technology takes on these coordination roles.
“We’re questioning the underlying assumption: that organizations must be hierarchically structured with humans as the primary coordination mechanism,” they wrote.
“Instead, we intend to replace what the hierarchy does. Most companies using AI today are giving everyone a copilot, which makes the existing structure work slightly better without changing it. We’re after something different: a company built as an intelligence, or mini-AGI.”
Many tech firms have reduced headcounts, pointing to AI as a key factor. In February, Block slashed about 40% of its workforce, a move Dorsey said was driven by the company’s fast-paced AI advancements and the need to remain competitive.
Humans Still Central to Block’s AI Vision
In March, some employees who were laid off in February were quietly rehired.
Dorsey and Botha emphasized that while AI will play a significant role in the company’s future model, humans will continue to make key business and ethical decisions.
Staff will be reorganized into three roles: “individual contributors”, who build and maintain operating systems; “directly responsible individuals”, who tackle specific problems with full freedom to use any resources; and “player-coaches”, who take on some managerial duties such as mentoring and supporting colleagues while continuing to write code and build products themselves.
Dorsey and Botha: AI Could Replace Hierarchies in the Workplace
“We believe the pattern here—a company organized as an intelligence rather than a hierarchy—is significant enough to reshape how businesses operate in the coming years,” Dorsey and Botha said.
Most companies rely on hierarchical structures, where information flows from employees to managers, then to executives, and back down the chain. While effective in the past, Dorsey and Botha argue that AI can handle these processes far more efficiently, providing real-time insights into product performance instead of waiting for managers to compile reports and make decisions.
“In a remote-first company where work is already machine-readable, AI can continuously build and maintain a picture of what’s being built, what’s blocked, where resources are allocated, and what’s working and what isn’t,” they said.
“Companies move fast or slow based on the flow of information. Hierarchies and middle management slow it down,” Dorsey and Botha added. “The question was never whether layers were necessary. The question was whether humans were the only option for what those layers do. They aren’t anymore.”
