Klarna teamed up with OpenAI to launch its first virtual assistant, and - one month in - the results appear overwhelmingly positive.
Indeed, Klarna stated the assistant had been responsible for two-thirds of customer service chats and was completing the work of 700 employees.
Moreover, the financial service company revealed its query resolution time had dropped from 11 minutes to just two minutes while customer satisfaction scores remained steady.
Altogether, Klarna estimates the innovation will drive a $40 million USD improvement in profits to Klarna in 2024.
In discussing the news, Sebastian Siemiatkowski – Co-Founder and CEO of Klarna – commented:
This AI breakthrough in customer interaction means superior experiences for our customers at better prices, more interesting challenges for our employees, and better returns for our investors.
Available in the company’s app, Klarna believes that the assistant will improve both the shopping and payment experience of its global consumers.
The partnership with OpenAI marks the first step in Klarna’s "vision of a fully AI-powered financial assistant," which it hopes will enhance the customer experience – saving users time, worry, and money.
In its current iteration, the Klarna AI assistant provides users with the following three key features:
1. 24/7 Support
As the name suggests, Klarna’s assistant will be available at all times and will provide customer service support for an array of prevalent problems, including refunds, returns, payment-related issues, cancellations, disputes, and invoice inaccuracies.
2. Personal Financial Support
Given Klarna’s buy-now-pay-later model, keeping track of outstanding and upcoming payments is understandably a key issue for its users.
The AI assistant will supply customers with real-time updates to help them stay abreast of their payment schedules, as well as provide guidance and explanations around spending limits and "purchase power."
3. Multilingual Chat Support
Currently available in 23 markets, in order to adequately support its global customer base, Klarna’s assistant has the capacity to handle queries in 35 languages.