Swedish payment company Klarna has announced job cuts and plans to further reduce its workforce as it adopts artificial intelligence (AI) to handle customer inquiries. According to Reuters, the company stated on August 27th that chatbots can significantly reduce the time needed to resolve issues. Klarna’s AI assistant is effectively performing the work of 700 employees, reducing the average resolution time from 11 minutes to just two. Klarna, a ‘buy now, pay later’ company with an anticipated IPO next year, has been a frontrunner in embracing generative AI (GenAI) to cut costs and boost productivity. The company, which reported a first-half adjusted profit of 673 million Swedish kronor ($66 million), said its AI assistant is performing the work of 700 employees. The CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, revealed that the company has reduced its workforce from 5,000 to 3,800 over the past year, largely through natural attrition rather than layoffs. Siemiatkowski has frequently praised AI as a way to reduce costs and increase efficiency. While Klarna plans to pay its remaining employees significantly more, the company anticipates a significant reduction in overall labor costs.
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