Dive Brief:

• Block is investigating ways it can price new artificial intelligence tools, including several that it has already deployed across its Cash App consumer and Square seller products, the company’s executives said Wednesday.
• Block is gathering customer insights and isn’t ready to select a definitive pricing model for AI tools yet, CEO Jack Dorsey said on a quarterly earnings call with analysts. “We’re in a fortunate position where we can experiment with a number of models, and then choose the right one that’s going to align all of our incentives with our customers,” he said.
• The company has held talks with Square sellers and other businesses about their AI needs, Dorsey said. Block has fully embraced open source AI tools for software coding and other internal tasks in the six months since its major, AI-focused reorganization, and is moving new products more quickly, he said.

Dive Insight:

Block owns Cash App, a digital payments app, and the point-of-sale service Square, in addition to buy now, pay later business Afterpay.  

Six months ago, Block took a dramatic step to advance its AI use and seek efficiencies across the company, laying off about 4,000, or roughly 40% of its workforce. 

Block has rolled out several AI tools for customers within the past year, including two – called Moneybot and Managerbot – that are for Cash App users and Square sellers, respectively. 

Two years ago, Block also built an internal AI system it calls Goose, an “agnostic” AI tool that integrates different commercial AI models for employee use. Starting in June, “agentic AI helped write and review nearly all of our production code changes,” Dorsey wrote in his quarterly shareholder letter.

“Block epitomizes the secular shift toward tech-forward digital finance firms,” William Blair analyst Andrew Jeffrey wrote Wednesday in a client note. 

On Thursday, Square introduced a new “conversational AI experience” within Google Maps “where customers discover restaurants and place orders simply by asking questions,” according to a Block news release.

The Google Maps announcement was “the first step in a broader partnership between Square and Google, as both companies continue building new ways for sellers to be discovered and transact across Google’s ecosystem,” Block said in its press release.

Last month, Block launched an internally developed AI system, dubbed Buzz, “for agent collaboration, communication, and code repositories, built to give teams of all sizes more time back,” reduce team coordination delays and boost product-shipping speeds, Dorsey wrote in the shareholder letter.

Cash App’s Moneybot AI assistant monitors users’ activity and provides suggestions on other features and provides information about a customer’s account, balances and transactions. The tool has grown to “over 1 million weekly engaged accounts,” Dorsey wrote.

A second AI tool, called Managerbot, helps Square sellers with tasks such as automated marketing and profit margin analysis, and can suggest “operational fixes,” he said.

These AI tools “have several potential monetization paths – including software-as-a-service bundles, direct subscriptions, enterprise offerings, and usage-based pricing,” Evercore ISI analysts wrote Wednesday in a client note. 

However, Block executives are first focused on “improving product quality, expanding distribution, and driving customer adoption before selecting a long-term pricing model,” the Evercore analysts wrote.

A Cash App payment device, called Tags, has sold out quickly and three million people are on a waiting list for the next release, Thomas Templeton, Block’s head of hardware, said on the call. Executives see the devices – which include keychains and wands with embedded NFC chips – as a critical driver for Cash App’s payments growth. 

The Oakland, California-based company is developing new devices for the program and is collaborating with other consumer brands to help drive adoption of the payment devices, Templeton said, not revealing any potential partners.

Block’s second quarter gross profit rose 25% over the same period of 2025 to $3.2 billion, with revenue rising about 10% to $6.62 billion, according to Block’s quarterly report. On a net income basis, Block earned $89 million, down 83% from a year ago, amid employee-related severance costs to complete its corporate restructuring.

Block also raised its guidance for 2026 on gross profit and operating income, citing “momentum” across the business.

The results provide “further evidence that Block’s post-reset operating model is delivering stronger execution, improving efficiency and greater earnings durability, while investors remain keenly focused on the magnitude of future margin expansion,” Bank of America analyst Matthew O’Neill wrote Wednesday in a report to clients.