Klarna, a leading fintech company specializing in “buy now, pay later” services, has fully embraced artificial intelligence (AI), ceasing human hiring in favor of automation. Over the past year, the company’s workforce shrank from 4,500 to 3,500 due to natural attrition, a move tied to its strategic shift toward AI-driven operations. CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski revealed to Bloomberg that AI now handles tasks once performed by hundreds of employees.
A notable example of this transformation is the integration of an AI assistant powered by OpenAI, replacing 700 customer service agents. Siemiatkowski highlighted that AI has significantly enhanced productivity and promised employees that the gains would translate into accelerated salary growth.
Klarna’s pivot to AI aligns with its ambitions for expansion, including plans to secure a banking license in the United States and grow its presence there. Siemiatkowski emphasized the company’s readiness to engage with U.S. policies facilitating such developments, including potential investments under favorable conditions.
This reliance on AI has reignited concerns about job displacement. According to a McKinsey & Company report, millions of workers could face redundancy by 2030 due to automation. Despite these concerns, Klarna continues to hire selectively for critical roles, such as engineering, even as it scales back overall recruitment.
The trend of AI adoption is not exclusive to Klarna. IBM, under CEO Arvind Krishna, has projected that up to 30% of HR roles could be automated within five years. The company also implemented policies mandating proximity to offices, further altering traditional workforce dynamics.
As Klarna advances its AI agenda, it showcases the dual-edged nature of technological progress: driving efficiency while sparking debates about the future of human labor.
