Block Slashes 4,000 Jobs on Strength of AI Productivity Gains, CFO Says
Block announced the elimination of nearly half its workforce—4,000 employees—following Q4 gross profits of $2.9 billion, up 24% year-over-year, with shares jumping nearly 20% on the news. CFO and COO Amrita Ahuja attributed the move to an 18-month internal AI transformation that has made remaining teams capable of handling "really meaningful bodies of work" with fewer people.
The centerpiece of Block's strategy is "goose," a custom-built AI agent that executes actions, drafts emails, and automates workflows on top of large language models. The tool has been in production internally for approximately 18 months and has been open-sourced for external use.
Ahuja framed the reduction as a deliberate two-year journey rather than a crisis response. "We believe that it is actually from a position of strength that we have the ability to take an action like this with confidence," she told Fortune. Block raised its 2026 guidance despite the headcount cut, signaling confidence that AI-augmented teams can sustain growth.
For CFOs watching AI's impact on workforce planning, Block's move signals that productivity gains from internal AI tools are now translating into structural headcount decisions at scale.
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