The Template Has Been Set

The Template Has Been Set

A thunderbolt struck last week at the intersection of work and AI.

As a founder of Twitter, Square, and Bluesky, Jack Dorsey is one of tech’s most forward-thinking CEOs with a knack for anticipating major industry shifts. His recent decision to cut 4,000 jobs at Block (roughly 40% of the workforce) wasn't a desperate move to save a struggling company. Instead, it was a calculated pivot, signaling a future where “work” is defined as “AI first.”

Block's gross profit grew 24% last quarter. Cash App is accelerating. The business is firing on all cylinders. And Dorsey's response to that strength was to look at his org chart and say: we can do all of this with a team that's barely half this size.

His logic was surgical. He could have trimmed gradually; a few hundred here, a quiet reduction there. Instead, he chose one clean cut.

Wall Street didn't just approve - Block's stock surged 24% in after-hours trading. The market isn't just rewarding cost-cutting. It's rewarding the conviction to reorganize around a fundamentally different operating model; one where a smaller, AI-augmented team generates more output than a larger traditional one ever could.

Here's the part that should keep every CEO up tonight. Dorsey said publicly that the majority of companies will reach the same conclusion within the next year. His exact framing: "I don't think we're early to this realization. I think most companies are late."

That's not an analyst's prediction. That's a sitting CEO who just bet his company on it.

For the past few years, companies have been handing power tools to their construction crews: Copilot for developers, AI assistants for service reps, automation for finance teams. Useful. Incremental. But Dorsey just did something different. He is replacing the crew with AI and keeping a skeleton team of foremen to direct them. 

In short, we've moved from talent using AI to AI supported by (less) talent.

The question for every leader isn't whether this shift is coming. It's whether you'll make it on your own terms or have it forced upon you. The template has been set. The market has rewarded it. And now the clock is ticking for everyone else.