Dhanji R. Prasanna
Chief Technology Officer at Block
CTO of Block overseeing 3,500+ people; under his leadership Block has become one of the most AI-native large companies in the world, achieving what many engineering and product leaders aspire to with AI adoption.
Dimension Profile
Key Themes
Episode Summary
Dhanji Prasanna, CTO of Block, shares how Block became one of the most AI-native large companies by achieving 8-10 hours of weekly productivity gains per engineer. He reveals that the biggest surprise is non-technical people showing the most impact with AI tools, introduces Block's Goose agent that autonomously builds features from Slack conversations, and emphasizes that current AI gains are just the baseline that will only improve.
Leadership Principles
- → AI-forward engineering teams report 8-10 hours saved per week — and importantly, this is the worst it will ever be; the value changes every day
- → The most surprising AI impact comes from non-technical people using AI agents and programming tools to build things — they show the most impact
- → You need to ride the AI wave as it changes — the value is not static, so your adoption strategy can't be either
Notable Quotes
"AI-forward engineering teams are reporting about eight to 10 hours saved per week. An important element is this is the worst it will ever be. This is now the baseline. The truth is the value is changing every day, so you need to ride that wave."
— On measured AI productivity gains at Block
"What's been surprising and really amazing, the non-technical people using AI agents and programming tools to build things — the people that embrace it to optimize for their particular workday are really showing the most impact."
— On who benefits most from AI coding tools
"You'll be talking to a colleague on Slack, discussing some feature. A few hours later, Goose has already tried to build that feature and opened a PR for it."
— On Block's Goose AI agent autonomously building features
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