Almost half of the staff currently working on the “buy now, pay later” startup Klarna may very well be replaced by AI in the following few years.
Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski told the Financial Times last week that the corporate plans to chop its workforce by almost half over the following few years, from 3,800 to 2,000 employees. Instead of layoffs, the corporate will proceed his hiring freeze The company began hiring substitute staff in September.
“By simply not hiring new employees, which we haven’t done since September, the company is somehow getting smaller and smaller,” Siemiatkowski said. specifiedHe identified that the typical revenue per Klarna worker increased by 73% in comparison with the previous 12 months.
AI will assist the remaining employees in carrying out their tasks, said Siemiatkowski.
Related: There are latest rules for “buy now, pay later” programs – here’s what you need to know
“Not only can we do more with less, we can do much more with less,” he told the Financial Times.
Klarna’s workforce was 5,000 a 12 months ago, however the departing employees and the AI-induced The hiring freeze reduced the corporate 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 the work of 700 full-time human customer support agents. The AI assistant shortened customer inquiries to 2 minutes, in comparison with the previous average 11-minute conversations with human agents.
Related: Klarna says its AI assistant does the work of 700 people. The company laid off the identical variety of employees 2 years ago.
Siemiatkowski wrote a a now deleted post on X in May that Klarna’s internal marketing team was half the dimensions of last 12 months, but with the assistance of AI, produced more and spent $6 million less.
Klarna’s Second quarter earnings report for 2024 recorded its third consecutive quarter of growth within the US, with revenue and operating profit increasing 17% and 21% year-on-year, respectively.
Klarna is reportedly considering an IPO within the US with a valuation of 20 billion US dollars.
