Klarna reconsiders AI drive, moves to rehire human staff
The fintech had previously made sweeping cuts, axing thousands of jobs and replacing functions with AI-driven systems.
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Klarna, once hailed as one of Europe’s most aggressive adopters of artificial intelligence, is now pulling back from its heavy reliance on the technology and turning once more to human employees.
Chief executive Sebastian Siemiatkowski acknowledged that the Swedish “buy now, pay later” lender may have gone too far in using AI to cut costs, with unintended consequences for product and service quality. He told Reuters that they may have over-indexed a little bit, and then in the last six months they have been trying to course correct.
The fintech had previously made sweeping cuts, axing thousands of jobs and replacing functions with AI-driven systems. Its AI chatbot alone was reported to be doing the work of 700 employees, significantly reducing customer response times. In May, Klarna went further, using an AI-generated avatar of its CEO to deliver quarterly earnings, alongside an interactive avatar for customer hotlines, as reported by Reuters.
While these moves saved the company millions, Siemiatkowski conceded that the drive to automate may have been “too fast, too soon”. He noted that investors were now placing greater emphasis on growth and the quality of services delivered to customers and merchants rather than on cost-cutting alone.
Klarna’s focus is shifting towards enhancing productivity and product quality, with hiring already underway. The company currently lists dozens of vacancies on its job portal, signalling a renewed investment in human talent after its bold AI experiment.
