Klarna is flip-flopping on its AI-first strategy.
Last year, the company suggested that investment in AI could help reduce its staff by more than half.
Before that, Klarna launched an AI assistant that it claimed could do the work of 700 full-time contact center agents.
However, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of Klarna, has acknowledged that he underestimated the need for the human touch in customer service.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Siemiatkowski revealed that the buy-now-pay-later specialist's relentless pursuit of AI had led to a drop in customer service and experience standards.
"As cost unfortunately seems to have been a too predominant evaluation factor when organizing this, what you end up having is lower quality," he explained.
Really investing in the quality of the human support is the way of the future for us.
"From a brand perspective, a company perspective, I just think it’s so critical that you are clear to your customer that there will be always a human if you want."
Interestingly, Siemiatkowski’s remarks about "lower quality" seem to contradict previous information released by the company that AI had helped reduce query resolution rates from 11 minutes to just two minutes, and that customer satisfaction scores had remained steady.
Of course, these numbers could have regressed since. Alternatively, other customer experience metrics may have been impacted.
A Human-First Vision for Klarna
In practical terms, Siemiatkowski’s announcement means a U-turn on Klarna’s hiring policy.
Having previously cut over 1000 roles, implemented a hiring freeze, and deployed a customer-facing virtual assistant, the company is now looking to recruit new, human customer service agents.
Siemiatkowski explained that rather than offering agents traditional contact center roles, Klarna is instead looking to test an "Uber-type of setup" that will allow them to work remotely and provide greater flexibility.
While the CEO has not provided further details on how this strategy will work, Uber-style setups can help access a broader talent pool, increase staffing flexibility, and lower administrative costs.
However, as AI automates many transactional queries and live agents take on more complex tasks, some may question the merits of a gig model.
Additionally, it is worth noting that Uber’s gig workers, who are classified as independent contractors, often miss out on traditional benefits like healthcare, sick pay, and minimum wage guarantees.
A Surprising Change of Heart
Given the fact that Siemiatkowski has in the past spoken about wanting to be ChatGPT’s "favorite guinea pig" and used an AI-generated version of himself to deliver the company’s financial results, the decision to now focus more on human agents comes as a surprise.
The change of direction was first mentioned by the CEO in a post on X back in February, where he wrote that “in a world of AI nothing will be as valuable as humans!”
We just had an epiphany: in a world of AI nothing will be as valuable as humans!
Ok you can laugh at us for realizing it so late, but we are going to kick off work to allow Klarna to become the best at offering a human to speak to!!!
So excited about this, more to come!
— Sebastian Siemiatkowski (@klarnaseb) February 14, 2025