And in a major bet, Sebastian Siemiatkowski Klarna CEO has shared this plan with his team to cut Klarna’s workforce by 50 percent over the next few years. The Swedish Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) player that plans to automate a large number of customer service and marketing jobs using AI. In an interview with the Financial Times, Siemiatkowski said that his target is to reduce Klarna’s headcount from 3,800 people today to only two-thirds of employees it currently has.
And this is just one year after a year of mass job cuts, when staffing dwindled down from 5,000. CEO Richard H. Thaler said in a statement: “We believe AI is the wave of technology for our industry and we are optimistic about its future, saying that not only do more with less than ever before but can also achieve much-improved results from reduced resources.”
But Could It Be? — AI Automation
That cannot be the first time Siemiatkowski has waxed enthusiastic concerning the potential of AI. Klarna froze new hiring in December with the objective of doing “less” as a company and automating functions. The CEO at the same time as facing some backlash has bragged about millions saved by using AI to generate images, creating an AI assistant and reducing marketing staff among other benefits.
Improvements have been made in this regard with Klarna having reduced its losses by quite more, but what the long-term impact of AI automation will be however still remains unclear. Although many economic experts suggest that there may be limited potential for AI’s overall positive effects in the US economy, history also suggests automating services like customer support can often create just as much trouble. Still, Klarna is not the only player in this as well — Duolingo and Meta are some of them — who have cut staff with a view to investing heavily on AI.
