Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of popular “buy now, pay later” fintech company Klarna, has claimed that he has stopped hiring human workers in favour of AI.
Siemiatkowski said the company stopped hiring new staff around a year ago, leading to a gradual reduction in its workforce.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Siemiatkowski said Klaran has seen its headcount fall 22%. The company now has around 200 people using AI for their core work.
“We have a natural attrition, as [does] every tech company,” he said.
“People stay about 5 years — so 20% leave every year — and by not hiring, we’re simply shrinking.”
The CEO said that while the total wage bill is shrinking, he promised the employees they’ll see a chunk of productivity gains they reap from their AI paycheck.
“People internally at Klarna are just rallying to deploy as much efficiency AI as they can,” he said.
“We’re going to give some of the improvements that the efficiency that AI provides by increasing the pace at which the salaries of our employees increases.”
Earlier this year, Klarna said that its AI assistant powered by OpenAI is doing the work of 700 full-time customer service agents.
Siemiatkowski said he believes that AI can effectively replace workers.
“I am of the opinion that AI can already do all of the jobs that we as humans do,” Siemiatkowski said.
“We’re gonna give some of the improvements [from] the efficiency that AI provides by increasing the pace at which the salaries of our employees increases.”
Klarna has around 85 million customers globally and has rapidly expanded into the US. They are looking to become a bank in the country similar to how they operate in Europe and Siemiatkowski said he is willing to invest US$1 billion in the US in exchange for a sped-up licensing process.