Klarna, one of Europe’s earliest adopters of artificial intelligence (AI), is rethinking its aggressive automation strategy. CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski has acknowledged that the company leaned too heavily on AI, cutting jobs and vendors at a pace that may have hurt service quality.
“We probably over-indexed a little bit on that, and in the last six months we have been trying to course correct,” Siemiatkowski told Reuters.
The Swedish “buy now, pay later” fintech had previously laid off thousands of staff and dropped vendors like Salesforce to save costs, with its AI chatbot reportedly replacing 700 employees. While this move reduced expenses and sped up customer query handling, the CEO admitted that it was “too much, too fast.”
Why Klarna Is Hiring Again
Investors, according to Siemiatkowski, are now prioritizing growth and the quality of customer and merchant services over short-term cost savings. As a result, Klarna is reopening roles and has dozens of job listings on its careers portal.
Earlier this year, Klarna showcased its bold AI push with an avatar of its CEO presenting quarterly earnings, alongside an interactive AI avatar handling customer hotline queries. Now, however, the company is balancing AI use with human expertise to enhance productivity and product development.
Klarna’s US IPO Success
Klarna’s strategic reset comes shortly after its much-anticipated US IPO. The fintech’s shares surged 30% on debut, opening at $52 against an IPO price of $40, pushing its valuation to $19.65 billion.