Jack Dorsey’s Block just fired nearly half its workforce — over 4,000 jobs—swapping them for AI tools like the internal Goose agent, which slashes 8-10 hours of weekly work per employee and wipes out 20-25% of manual tasks. Naysayers claiming “AI creates more jobs than it kills” look foolish: this isn’t theory; it’s a payments giant proving smaller, AI-powered teams outperform bloated staff.
History’s tech shifts—like factories automating looms or PCs digitizing offices—unfolded over decades, giving societies time to adapt. AI? It’s a blitzkrieg. Tools evolve overnight; Block’s Goose went from prototype to enterprise-scale in months, per Dorsey’s earnings call. Reuters notes similar plays at Duolingo (cut 10% of contractors for AI) and IBM (AI replacing 7,800 HR jobs).
Pace is the killer —white-collar roles in coding, admin, and analysis vanish before retraining kicks in, shredding the “just learn new skills” rebuttal. Dorsey warns most firms will follow suit this year, as AI absorbs rote white-collar work. Investors love it: Block’s “growth story” via cuts signals CEOs everywhere—finance, tech, even governance—that headcount slashing boosts margins without tanking morale. TechCrunch reports Shopify and Anthropic echoing this, with AI agents handling customer support and data tasks.
For India’s IT sector, already jittery post-Infosys’ 2025 AI pilots, this is a wake-up: global clients demand AI efficiency, or contracts bleed out. Policymakers and workers can’t afford denial —track AI’s rampage now, reskill aggressively in oversight / human-AI hybrid roles, and push universal basic income pilots. Block isn’t a blip; it’s the blueprint.
AI FIRES FIRST, ASKS QUESTIONS NEVER.