Have a Complaint? Klarna’s CMO Will Direct You to His AI Clone to Vent: ‘I Just Didn’t Want to Hear the Whining’
Klarna CMO David Sandström created an AI version of himself to handle angry comments after budget cuts.
Key Takeaways
- Klarna CMO David Sandström created an AI avatar of himself so employees could “vent” during a period of budget cuts.
- Instead of sending Sandström angry Slack messages, employees could call a number to talk to an AI voice that sounded like him.
- This AI counterpart was designed to remain consistently agreeable — quick to apologize and assume responsibility.
David Sandström, chief marketing officer at “buy now, pay later” fintech startup Klarna, recently had to navigate budget cuts. Instead of holding a meeting with staff to hear their frustrations, he created an AI clone of himself that employees could call to unload their concerns.
During a recent ElevenLabs webinar, Sandström said he used his AI-generated double as a kind of internal “venting machine” that listened to workers patiently. He explained that he designed his AI counterpart to remain consistently agreeable — quick to apologize and assume responsibility.
He told his team: “I believe that people are probably quite pissed with me, and I would like to give them a way of expressing that without having to send me angry Slack messages.”
Sandström assembled his AI double to cut down on complaints during meetings, telling colleagues to call the number and vent there so in-person discussions could stay focused on what comes next.
“I just didn’t want to hear the whining in the meetings anymore,” Sandström said. “So I said, call this number, get it out of the system. When we then meet, we focus on the future.”
Sandström’s AI experiment also shaped Klarna’s next move. The company built a chatbot based on CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski that lets customers call in and share feedback. The bot learned from his podcast appearances, so it sounds and responds like him.
Other AI clones of top executives
Klarna isn’t the only company experimenting with AI clones. Uber employees are beginning to use an unusual new tool: an AI-generated version of CEO Dara Khosrowshahi to help refine their presentations, according to a February report from Business Insider.
Employees are reportedly using the digital replica as a kind of final checkpoint before major meetings. Staff can run their slides, talking points or strategy pitches through the AI avatar to get feedback that mirrors how the CEO might respond — what he would question, where he might push for clarity and which ideas he would likely prioritize.
“They basically make the presentation to the Dara AI as a prep for making a presentation to me,” Khosrowshahi said on an episode of The Diary of a CEO podcast. “They have Dara AI to tune their prep.”
Meanwhile, Meta is reportedly building a photorealistic AI avatar of CEO Mark Zuckerberg, trained on his voice, mannerisms and tone, so the company’s 79,000 employees can interact with a virtual version of their boss. The goal is to make Meta’s workers feel a closer, more direct connection to Zuckerberg — and allow him to skip some meetings.
Other CEOs are using AI clones to report earnings. Sam Sidhu, CEO of Customers Bank, revealed late last month that he had used an AI replica of himself to deliver the bank’s first-quarter results with analysts.
“The prepared remarks you heard on my behalf today were delivered by my AI clone, not read by me,” Sidhu said during the call, according to CNBC.
Key Takeaways
- Klarna CMO David Sandström created an AI avatar of himself so employees could “vent” during a period of budget cuts.
- Instead of sending Sandström angry Slack messages, employees could call a number to talk to an AI voice that sounded like him.
- This AI counterpart was designed to remain consistently agreeable — quick to apologize and assume responsibility.
David Sandström, chief marketing officer at “buy now, pay later” fintech startup Klarna, recently had to navigate budget cuts. Instead of holding a meeting with staff to hear their frustrations, he created an AI clone of himself that employees could call to unload their concerns.
During a recent ElevenLabs webinar, Sandström said he used his AI-generated double as a kind of internal “venting machine” that listened to workers patiently. He explained that he designed his AI counterpart to remain consistently agreeable — quick to apologize and assume responsibility.
He told his team: “I believe that people are probably quite pissed with me, and I would like to give them a way of expressing that without having to send me angry Slack messages.”
