Leading at Scale: Block’s Amrita Ahuja on Innovation, Discipline, and Dual-Role Leadership

At the 2025 Fortune COO Summit, Amrita Ahuja, Block’s Foundational Lead, joined a panel moderated by Fortune’s Leadership Editor Ruth Umoh to discuss what it takes to lead a complex business at scale as a dual-role CFO & COO. The conversation explored how dual-role finance and operations leaders are shaping strategy, building strong internal foundations, and balancing rapid innovation with long-term discipline.

Amrita spoke about the role of Block’s Foundational teams - Finance, Counsel, People, Policy, and Communications - in helping the company speak a common language across functions. These teams play a critical part in aligning operations, enabling informed decision-making, and maintaining clarity as Block continues to grow. She emphasized how Block’s structure allows the company to move with speed while staying committed to risk and cost discipline, particularly when adopting emerging technologies like AI. This balance, Amrita shared, helps Block innovate responsibly and sustainably as the business grows.

Throughout the discussion, Amrita emphasized Block’s purpose of economic empowerment. From internal operations to customer-facing products, the goal is to expand financial access and opportunity for the modern economy by creating systems that are more inclusive and accessible.

Sharing how Block is using AI to evolve both the customer experience and the way the company operates internally, Amrita noted, “We’re automating not just the customer experience - whether it’s a small business on Square or someone managing money on Cash App - but the company itself. From contracts to treasury movement, we’re using shared infrastructure and tools like generative AI, including our internal agentic AI platform, codename goose, to drive that transformation. Our structure lets us share insights across teams so we can move faster and operate smarter.”