Klarna Says Its AI Assistant Does the Work of 700 People. The Company Laid Off the Same Number of Employees 2 Years Ago.

Klarna, nan $7 cardinal "buy now, salary later" startup used by companies for illustration Versace, Nike, and Wayfair, stated connected Tuesday that its AI chatbot "is doing nan balanced activity of 700 full-time [customer service] agents."

The connection arrives connected nan heels of Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski's announcement successful December that nan institution is nary longer hiring extracurricular of engineering and that AI would prime up nan duties of laid-off employees.

Sebastian Siemiatkowski, main executive serviceman of Klarna Holding AB, astatine IFGS 2022 acme astatine nan Guildhall successful London, U.K., connected Monday, April 4, 2022. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Klarna's OpenAI-powered AI chatbot has been unrecorded for astir a month, and nan institution is "incredibly excited" astir it, according to Siemiatkowski. The AI adjunct handles questions astir refunds, returns, payments, cancellations, and much successful 35 languages successful usually nether 2 minutes. The erstwhile clip of a customer work relationship without nan chatbot was 11 minutes.

The AI bot has taken connected 75% of Klarna's customer work chats, aliases astir 2.3 cardinal conversations truthful far, and achieved customer restitution scores comparable to those of quality agents, according to nan company.

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Klarna additionally reports that nan chatbot could amended nan company's profits by $40 cardinal this year. The motorboat is simply a measurement guardant toward Klarna's extremity of a "fully AI-powered financial assistant."

Meanwhile, users person had mixed experiences pinch nan chatbot, pinch immoderate questioning Klarna's declare that it was imaginable to switch 700 quality support agents successful a period pinch AI. Gergely Orosz, an writer and writer astatine The Pragmatic Engineer, tried retired nan chatbot and stated that nan AI "recites nonstop docs and passes maine connected to quality support fast."

"It acts fundamentally arsenic a select to get to customer support," Orosz wrote connected X, formerly Twitter. "As soon arsenic I inquire aliases instruct thing that is not a doc, I'm *boom* talking pinch a quality agent."

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Back in May 2022, Siemiatkowski publicly posted a database of nan 700 labor Klarna laid disconnected that period pinch their individual interaction information. Klarna told Fast Company connected Tuesday that nan AI bot's productivity is "in nary measurement connected to nan workforce reductions."

Klarna is reportedly discussing a imaginable U.S. first nationalist offering this twelvemonth astatine a valuation of astir $20 billion, per Bloomberg.