Khaberni - "Block", one of the world's largest financial technology companies, announced the layoff of about 4,000 employees out of a total of 10,000 working for it, in a move described by the company as part of restructuring its financial and operational strategies.
The company stated that the affected employees will receive severance pay, six months of health care, in addition to a sum of $5,000 to cover any other needs, and the expected cost of this decision is about $500 million.
Despite the company's continued revenue growth and a 24% increase in its profits compared to the same period last year, its founder and CEO Jack Dorsey confirmed that the reason behind the layoffs is the company's reliance on artificial intelligence, saying "A smaller team using these tools can achieve more and better quality, and this is a delayed step that many companies will eventually take."
Several users on social media platforms reacted to the news of Block's layoffs, expressing their concerns about the impact of artificial intelligence on the job market and the future of employment, while the "Networks" program captured some of this interaction in its episode (2026/2/27).
"The employment earthquake is coming"
Qasim noted that he had predicted this wave for years, saying:
"I predicted job losses since 2013 and even before the artificial intelligence wave, and I wrote about it and lectured in many countries, and people's reaction to my proposals was skeptical, and now the employment earthquake is definitely coming."
Meanwhile, Qamar linked the development of artificial intelligence to humans losing their job opportunities, saying:
"Blame is on the human engineers who are helping them develop artificial intelligence and those who developed it tomorrow they will also lose their jobs.. nothing can replace humans."
Ayman pointed to a painful aspect of the issue, acknowledging the impact of modern technology, and wrote:
"The truth is bitter, but artificial intelligence and robots have already replaced humans in various services, which is painful and dangerous, and we must only seek how we can excel over artificial intelligence."
Meanwhile, Moheeb expressed his view on possible solutions to face the wave of layoffs, confirming:
"In my opinion, the only solution to this problem is for governments to enact laws that ensure the employee's job security regardless of the advancements in artificial intelligence, and employees must be keen to learn this new skill."
Similar Decisions:
Major companies like Amazon have made similar decisions, canceling about 30,000 administrative jobs as part of a restructuring plan, which led to the layoff of about 10% of its administrative workforce, also basing it on the capabilities of artificial intelligence.
A recent study prepared by the International Monetary Fund warned that 40% of workers around the world need to develop their skills or learn new skills by 2030 to avoid being replaced by artificial intelligence.
