Overview

• Klarna replaced 700 customer service roles with AI agents, claiming cost savings and efficiency gains but later admitted to lower service quality.
• The company recently piloted a program to rehire human customer service agents in a remote, gig-style setup to address service shortcomings.
• CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski acknowledged that prioritizing cost over quality was a mistake and emphasized the importance of human interaction for customers.
• Klarna used an AI avatar of its CEO to present quarterly earnings, highlighting its AI-first branding despite ongoing challenges with full automation.
• The fintech firm has reduced its workforce by 40% since 2022, shrinking from 5,000 to 3,000 employees as part of its AI-driven restructuring.