Block employee sacked during hiring call warns of more AI job cuts — ‘Survived previous layoffs, was sole breadwinner’

Jack Dorsey’s Block has laid off 40% of its employees as part of a major overhaul to embed artificial intelligence into its operations. This move led to the dismissal of more than 4,000 of the company’s employees.

Ivan Ureña-Valdes, a data analyst at Block, was among those affected. Ureña-Valdes was in the middle of meeting with a company when he received the memorable email from Jack Dorsey. Business Content reported.

He was the sole breadwinner for his family and the former Block employee described his ordeal as ‘tough’.

Ureña-Valdes described her feeling as “really bad,” saying: “I had to tell them (the interviewee): “I actually just got laid off from the company. I probably won’t be able to send your feedback in time. Please contact your recruiter.”

Dorsey said in his post on social media platform

“Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company. We’re already seeing this internally. A much smaller team using the tools can do more and better,” Dorsey wrote in his post.

AI layoffs were looming

Writing in Business Insider, Ivan Ureña-Valdes said he had survived three layoffs at Block but didn’t see the last one coming. He had the impression that Block’s firings for performance reasons had already been made.

“The slaughter of over 4,000 people without anyone knowing suggests to me that decisions were made at very high levels,” he wrote.

The three layoffs he survived were company-wide as well as across the engineering organization.

“I knew I wasn’t going to be laid off for performance reasons. I was in the middle of working on two big projects, which were probably the biggest projects I’d worked on since joining the company,” he said.

Dorsey said Block favored one deep cut rather than multiple smaller layoffs over time. He said a smaller company would create room to grow the business the right way, rather than constantly reacting to market pressures.

Ureña-Valdes told Business Insider that she had a “hunch” that AI-related layoffs were coming. “I didn’t think it would happen right now.”

Investors are rewarding companies that deliver AI-powered cost savings, and the sharp decline in workforces signals the scale at which the technology is starting to translate into lower expenses and higher margins in some sectors.

Block’s shares closed up 16.75% on Friday, marking their second consecutive day of gains following the announcement.

Artificial intelligence will continue to replace jobs

He agreed with former Block data analyst Jack Dorsey and said AI will continue to replace jobs.

“Given that we live in the United States, where growth is everything, it is inevitable that AI will continue to replace humans wherever it is financially beneficial,” he said.

Ureña-Valdes said that recently he can clearly see how artificial intelligence is rapidly replacing his business, being able to solve problems instantly, even with large data sets.

“It was definitely a ‘wow’ moment when I realized how powerful things had become,” he said.