Klarna Stopped All Hiring a Year Ago To Replace Workers With AI

Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said his company was able to stop hiring a year ago as it invested in AI that's doing the work of hundreds of staff across the firm. From a report: The buy now, pay later finance provider has seen headcount fall 22% to 3,500 during that time, mostly due to attrition, Siemiatkowski said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in New York on Thursday. The company now has about 200 people using AI for their core work, he said.

Siemiatkowski said that while the total wage bill is shrinking, he's been able to convince employees to get on board with the shift by promising they'll see a chunk of any productivity gains they reap from AI in their 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.'

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