Globally acclaimed Swedish fintech giant, Klarna has reported reducing its workforce by half after employing AI to take over some jobs in the company.
In a letter to shareholders, CEO of Klarna, Sebastian Siemiatkowski wrote “Our AI assistant now performs the work of 700 employees, reducing the average resolution time from 11 minutes to just 2, while maintaining the same customer satisfaction scores as human agents.”
But here comes the crazy part – The financial impact of these AI-driven efficiencies is substantial.
In their latest first half 2024 financials, Klarna reported that average revenue per employee has surged by 73% over the past 12 months alone, from SEK4 million ($392k) to SEK7 million ($686k).
As an effect, this productivity gain has allowed Klarna to reduce its workforce from 5,000 to 3,800 over the past year alone through natural attrition, with plans to potentially shrink further to around 2,000 employees in the coming years.
It’s now clear that this Bloomberg interview Siemiatkowski did a few months ago wasn’t just hype – Klarna is walking the walk.
AI is eating FinTech.
