Swedish fintech company Klarna said AI would replace customer service, but now it's hiring people again

Swedish fintech company Klarna said last year that its AI systems were doing the equivalent of 700 customer service employees and was even looking to cut 2,000 jobs to replace them with AI. The company has worked closely with OpenAI, calling itself the tech giant’s "favorite guinea pig." But more than a year without new hires has shown that full automation has led to "low quality" service, CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski admitted, Bloomberg reports.

"As cost unfortunately seems to have been a too predominant evaluation factor when organizing this, what you end up having is lower quality," said Siemiatkowski. "Really investing in the quality of the human support is the way of the future for us."

Klarna’s new pilot project envisions an Uber-like model: support agents work remotely, logging in as needed. While there are only two such agents in the program right now, the company plans to recruit students, rural residents, and even active users of its app.

"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," Siemiatkowski emphasized.

At the same time, Klarna is not rejecting AI completely. The company is rebuilding its technology platform to integrate machine learning for efficiency, and this year plans to launch a "digital financial assistant" that can negotiate better credit and insurance terms for users.

Klarna, which serves 93 million customers and works with more than 600,000 retailers, has resumed hiring despite forecasting a reduction in staff from about 3,000 to 2,500 over the year due to natural attrition and optimization through artificial intelligence technologies. The company is also preparing for an IPO with a target valuation of more than $15 billion, although that has been put on hold due to market volatility.