AI could replace middle management in companies, says Jack Dorsey
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Jack Dorsey said artificial intelligence could soon remove the need for traditional middle management roles, arguing that companies may operate more efficiently with smaller teams and AI-driven coordination.
The comments come weeks after Block Inc. announced plans to cut about 4,000 jobs, or roughly 40% of its workforce, as part of a wider push toward greater use of artificial intelligence.
In a blog post titled "From Hierarchy to Intelligence", co-written with former Sequoia Capital managing partner Roelof Botha, Dorsey said AI could take over many of the coordination and communication tasks now handled by middle managers.
He said most companies still operate through a pyramid structure, with information moving from employees to managers and then to senior executives before decisions are passed back down. Middle managers often coordinate projects, track progress, and keep teams aligned.
According to Dorsey, AI can now perform many of those functions faster and on a larger scale. He said AI systems could maintain a real-time "world model" of a company, constantly tracking workflows, identifying problems, assigning tasks, and sharing information across teams.
Dorsey is already testing the idea at Block, the parent company of Square and Cash App. Because the company processes millions of transactions each day, it has access to large amounts of data that can be used to train AI systems.
Under Dorsey's proposal, companies would rely on three types of roles: individual contributors, directly responsible individuals, and player-coaches. Individual contributors would specialise in specific tasks, directly responsible individuals would oversee cross-functional problems, and player-coaches would combine product development with mentoring.
In this structure, AI would replace the traditional coordination role of middle managers, allowing companies to make decisions faster and improve productivity.