"No Need For Middle Management": Jack Dorsey's Bold Vision After 4,000 Layoffs At Block

Jack Dorsey, chief executive of payments firm Block and former head of Twitter, has called on businesses to replace their middle management layers with artificial intelligence, just weeks after his own company made around 4,000 redundancies.

In a blog post written alongside Roelof Botha of venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, Mr Dorsey set out a vision for what he calls "intelligence-native" organisations. The pair argue that businesses should move away from traditional management hierarchies and instead be structured around three types of roles supported by AI: deep specialists who take instruction directly from AI systems, senior figures who combine hands-on work with staff development, and AI systems themselves, which would carry out the coordination work previously done by managers.

"There is no need for a permanent middle management layer," the post stated, arguing that AI can handle the communication, oversight and coordination that managers have traditionally provided.

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Block, which owns Square, Cash App and Afterpay, announced in late February 2026 that it would reduce its headcount from more than 10,000 to just under 6,000. Mr Dorsey described the decision as a strategic move, saying that advances in AI tools had fundamentally changed what it means to run a company. He added that a smaller team equipped with the right AI technology could deliver better results more quickly.

The company said it was still recruiting AI specialists even as it cut other roles. Block's share price rose by more than 20 per cent following the announcement, suggesting strong backing from investors for the new direction.

Mr Dorsey has previously said that most businesses will eventually reach similar conclusions about AI and management. He argues that in a modern, remote-working environment, AI can replace the coordination role that management chains once served, helping organisations make faster decisions with less bureaucracy.