Four companies described how they are changing the way work gets done with AI at a panel moderated by Fortune's Sheryl Estrada at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in Santa Barbara, California. Estrada reported the discussion on October 15.
Block
Amrita Ahuja, Block's CFO and COO, said leaders considered “fundamentally refactoring how we operate as a company” instead of adding AI to existing processes. The fintech, parent of Square and Cash App, has used AI since early 2024. Earlier in 2026 it cut its workforce by 40% and removed layers of management. Engineers improved code review output by 150% from the start of the year to midyear, and Ahuja noted that even non-engineers saw a 60% improvement. About 15% of code changes are now almost fully automated, with a human making only the final decision. Block is refining a metric it calls timed customer value, which traces a code change to a feature, then a customer interaction, then value. Ahuja expects more companies to put AI agents on published org charts, with workers responsible for training and deploying them.
Amazon
Heather Zorn, a vice president of customer experience, products and services, said Amazon measures returns on employee AI use in three stages: adoption, then engagement, then efficiency through outcomes such as time saved. Her advice to leaders: “make sure that you're giving time and space and permission for your teams to learn.”
Synopsys
Shelagh Glaser, the CFO of the semiconductor design software maker, said AI spending seemed reasonable until costs rose quickly, and compared employees' usage habits to snacks in a break room. The company decides who gets premium AI tiers and who uses internal models, and built its own metering system because some providers did not offer one. The goal is to be “super intentional about where that investment is,” with returns measured by customer outcomes.
Cloudflare
Michelle Zatlyn, co-founder and president, said Cloudflare, with about 5,000 employees, now hires both employees and agents and wants all staff to be builders. A finance director who made extensive use of agents was asked by the CFO to lead AI transformation for the finance team. Cloudflare committed to hiring more than 1,000 interns in 2026, who have helped teams become more AI-native.
Source: Fortune. This is an AI Business Watch summary of the original report.