Source: klarna.com
As cost unfortunately seems to have been a too predominant evaluation factor when organizing this, what you end up having is lower quality
Sebastian Siemiatkowski
CEO
Klarna
Klarna is dialing back its aggressive AI-first customer service strategy; the company now acknowledges the irreplaceable value of human interaction after its tech push compromised service quality.
Reversing course: CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski announced a new recruitment drive for human agents, an announcement that signals a major pivot for the company once eager to be OpenAI's "favorite guinea pig." The move points to a growing realization that even advanced AI has its limits in delivering satisfactory customer support.
Cost over quality: Siemiatkowski admitted the company's intense focus on cost-cutting through AI "has gone too far," directly impacting the customer experience. "As cost unfortunately seems to have been a too predominant evaluation factor when organizing this, what you end up having is lower quality," he said in an exclusive comment to Bloomberg. This candid admission highlights the pitfalls of prioritizing automation savings above genuine support.
Remote workforce rising: Klarna is now piloting an "Uber-type setup" for these new remote customer service agents. The pilot aims to tap into talent pools like students, rural populations, and even passionate Klarna users. The ultimate goal is to replace the "few thousand human agents" currently outsourced with this more flexible, in-house team, a novel approach that could offer a new blueprint for customer support staffing.
AI's early wins: The reversal contrasts sharply with Klarna's earlier pronouncements, when its OpenAI-powered assistant handled 2.3 million conversations in its first month, reportedly doing the work of 700 agents. At the time, Siemiatkowski celebrated the "superior experiences for our customers at better prices" driven by the AI breakthrough. Initial reports even claimed the AI matched human satisfaction scores and resolved issues in under two minutes. But as with most things in the current market, success is a moving target as the underlying infrastructure continues to mature and execs seek ROI on an often trial-and-error basis.