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Klarna CEO Says AI Could Help Reduce Company Headcount By 50% Earlier this year, Klarna claimed its AI assistant does work equivalent to 700 full-time, human customer service agents.

By Sherin Shibu Edited by Melissa Malamut

Key Takeaways

  • Klarna had 5,000 employees a year ago, but an AI-induced hiring freeze has cut the company down to 3,800 people.
  • Now Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski wants to continue the hiring freeze and get its workforce down to 2,000.
  • He says AI is helping the company do "much more with less."

Nearly half of the employees currently working at "buy now, pay later" startup Klarna could be replaced by AI in the next few years.

Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski told The Financial Times last week that the company aims to almost halve its workforce within the next few years, from 3,800 people to 2,000. Instead of layoffs, the company will continue its hiring freeze that started in September and not hire replacements for people who leave the company.

"By simply not hiring, which we haven't done since September ... the company is kind of becoming smaller and smaller," Siemiatkowski stated. He pointed out that the average revenue per Klarna employee had increased by 73% year-over-year.

The remaining employees will have AI to help with tasks, Siemiatkowski said.

Related: There Are New Rules for 'Buy Now, Pay Later' Programs — Here's What to Know

"Not only can we do more with less, but we can do much more with less," he told the Financial Times.

Klarna's employees numbered 5,000 one year ago, but departing employees and the AI-induced hiring freeze have cut the company down to its current size.

Sebastian Siemiatkowski. Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Klarna

Klarna claimed in February that its AI assistant did work equivalent to 700 full-time, human customer service agents. The AI assistant brought down customer inquiries to two minutes, compared to the previous 11-minute average conversation needed with human agents.

Related: Klarna Says Its AI Assistant Does the Work of 700 People. The Company Laid Off the Same Number of Employees 2 Years Ago.

Siemiatkowski wrote in a now-deleted post on X in May that Klarna's in-house marketing team was half the size it was last year, but was producing more with AI and spent $6 million less.

Klarna's second-quarter earnings report for 2024 showed its third consecutive quarter of growth in the U.S., with revenue and operating income up 17% and 21% year-over-year respectively.

Klarna is reportedly exploring a U.S. IPO at a valuation of $20 billion.
Sherin Shibu

Entrepreneur Staff

News Reporter

Sherin Shibu is a business news reporter at Entrepreneur.com. She previously worked for PCMag, Business Insider, The Messenger, and ZDNET as a reporter and copyeditor. Her areas of coverage encompass tech, business, strategy, finance, and even space. She is a Columbia University graduate.

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