Klarna rethinks AI cost-cutting plan with call for real people
Klarna Group Plc's chief executive says his pursuit of cost-cutting, fueled by advancements in artificial intelligence, has gone too far.
To that end, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, 43, is plotting a rare recruitment drive so the buy-now-pay-later company's customers will always have the option of speaking to a real person, in a sign the Swedish fintech's commitment to AI has its limits.
Speaking at the company's headquarters in Stockholm, co-founder Siemiatkowski said the firm is piloting a new cohort of employees "in an Uber type of setup' where they can log in and work remotely, with a view to eventually replacing "the few thousand human agents' that Klarna currently outsources.
The pilot has started small, with two of the new breed of customer-service agents live now, but the ambition is to tap into candidates such as students or rural populations. "We also know there are tons of Klarna users that are very passionate about our company and would enjoy working for us,' he added.
"From a brand perspective, a company perspective,' Siemiatkowski said, "I just think it's so critical that you are clear to your customer that there will be always a human if you want.'
Klarna, which was forced to pause plans for a US initial public offering last month, has been shedding costs since the end of the fintech boom. In a 2022 fundraising round, its valuation plunged as low as US$6.7bil (RM28.64bil), down from a peak of US$45.6bil (RM194.89bil) a year prior. More recently, the company has been seeking to raise at least US$1bil (RM4.27bil) in an IPO with a target valuation of more than US$15bil (RM64.11bil), Bloomberg News has reported.
During the leaner times, Klarna outsourced more of its operations and turned its focus to AI. Klarna was one of the first firms to collaborate with OpenAI, with Siemiatkowski declaring in 2023 that he wanted his company to be the tech giant's "favorite guinea pig'.
The fintech stopped hiring for over a year as it focused on building AI capabilities, and an announcement in 2024 about how AI was doing the work of 700 customer service agents sent shares in call centre provider Teleperformance SE spiralling.
Siemiatkowski said that strategy isn't the right fit any more. "As cost unfortunately seems to have been a too predominant evaluation factor when organising this, what you end up having is lower quality,' he said. "Really investing in the quality of the human support is the way of the future for us.'
Staffing impact
To be sure, Klarna remains enthusiastic about AI. Siemiatkowski points to the rebuilding of the company's tech stack that will incorporate AI to improve efficiency.
Klarna's fast credit options are used by 93 million customers around the world and more than 600,000 retail partners. A key goal for the company this year is to offer the first version of a digital financial assistant that Siemiatkowski hopes will eventually be able to negotiate on a customer's behalf, for example securing the best interest rates and insurance premiums.
While the firm has returned to hiring, technological shifts are still going to impact staffing numbers in a broader sense, according to Siemiatkowski. In a year's time he expects the natural attrition rate of 20% to continue, taking the workforce down to about 2,500 from the current level of 3,000.
That pace of downsizing may even accelerate as the firm's technology improves. Asked when that could happen, the co-founder and CEO replied: "I feel a bit like Elon Musk, always wanting to say it's going to happen tomorrow, when it's going take a little bit longer. I think it's very likely within 12 months.' – Bloomberg
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