In a bold move towards automation, Klarna’s CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, is boasting about how AI is replacing human workers at his company. Klarna, the popular “buy now, pay later” fintech firm, has significantly shifted its operations in the last year, reducing its workforce by 22 percent.
During an interview with Bloomberg, Siemiatkowski explained that the company has not hired any new human employees over the past year, focusing instead on leveraging AI technology. As a result, Klarna’s staff has shrunk to approximately 3,500 people. According to Siemiatkowski, most of the reductions were voluntary departures, and they were not replaced. He revealed that he had approached OpenAI’s Sam Altman with a clear vision for Klarna, stating that he wanted the company to be “OpenAI’s favorite guinea pig.”
Thanks to its collaboration with OpenAI, Klarna rolled out an AI assistant capable of performing the tasks of 700 humans. This AI initiative has become central to Klarna’s operations, with approximately 200 employees now using AI tools in their daily work. Siemiatkowski is confident that these AI-driven productivity gains will benefit his remaining staff. He stated, “People internally at Klarna are just rallying to deploy as much efficiency AI as they can… We’re going to give some of the improvements that the efficiency that AI provides by increasing the pace at which the salaries of our employees increase.” Though the exact details of the pay increases or bonuses remain unclear, the message is that AI will drive performance and reward the company’s employees accordingly.
In a more unusual demonstration of AI’s capabilities, Klarna took the idea of automation a step further during its latest quarterly earnings call. Instead of the traditional CEO speech, the company used an AI-generated version of Siemiatkowski to deliver financial updates to shareholders. While the AI version of the CEO was impressive at first glance, the video also revealed some of the uncanny effects that often plague AI-generated human figures, such as a strange bubbling distortion when the avatar moved.
Despite the loss of staff, Klarna’s financial performance has remained strong, with the company posting an increase in earnings last quarter. While this spells success for Siemiatkowski and the company, it does not reflect well on the employees who have been let go or replaced by AI.
