# How Block is becoming the most AI-native enterprise in the world | Dhanji R. Prasanna

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/lenny-s-podcast/how-block-is-becoming-the-most-ai-native-enterprise-in-the-world-dhanji-r-prasanna
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/lenny-s-podcast/how-block-is-becoming-the-most-ai-native-enterprise-in-the-world-dhanji-r-prasanna.md
Podcast: [Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth](https://stenobird.com/podcast/lenny-s-podcast)
Published: 2025-10-26T11:02:54+00:00
Episode link: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-block-is-becoming-the-most-ai-native
Audio file: https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/api.substack.com/feed/podcast/176082333/731dd3c66b63923e351f0b6b9b7ae5b2.mp3
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Duration seconds: 5201

## Resource

Dhanji R. Prasanna is the chief technology officer at Block (formerly Square), where he’s managed more than 4,000 engineers over the past two years. Under his leadership, Block has become one of the most AI-native large companies in the world. Before becoming CTO, Dhanji wrote an “AI manifesto” to CEO Jack Dorsey that sparked a company-wide transformation (and his promotion to CTO). We discuss: 1. How Block’s internal open-source agent, called Goose, is saving employees 8 to 10 hours weekly 2. How the company measures AI productivity gains across technical and non-technical teams 3. Which teams are benefiting most from AI (it’s not engineering) 4. The boring organizational change that boosted productivity even more than AI tools 5. Why code quality has almost nothing to do with product success 6. How to drive AI adoption throughout an organization (hint: leadership needs to use the tools daily) 7. Lessons from building Google Wave, Google+, and other failed products — Brought to you by: Sinch —Build messaging, email, and calling into your product: https://sinch.com/lenny Figma Make —A prompt-to-code tool for making ideas real: https://www.figma.com/lenny/ Persona —A global leader in digital identity verification: https://withpersona.com/lenny — Where to find Dhanji R. Prasanna: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhanji/ — Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ — In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Introduction to Dhanji (05:26) The AI manifesto: convincing Jack Dorsey (07:33) Transforming into a more AI-native company (12:05) How engineering teams work differently today (15:24) Goose: Block’s open-source AI agent (20:18) Measuring AI productivity g…

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