Klarna’s AI Gamble Backfires — Now Turning Back to Human Customer Support

Buy-now, pay-later firm Klarna is shifting its approach to AI-driven cost-cutting, with CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski announcing a renewed focus on human customer service.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg News, Siemiatkowski revealed that the Swedish fintech company is hiring again after a hiring freeze that lasted over a year.

The pause had allowed Klarna to prioritise the development of artificial intelligence capabilities — a strategy the CEO now says needs rethinking.

“From a brand perspective, a company perspective, I just think it’s so critical that you are clear to your customer that there will be always a human if you want,” he said.

Last year, Klarna claimed the company would shut down Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers like Salesforce and Workday and replace them with internally built AI.

Klarna is currently testing a remote-work model for customer service agents in an “Uber-type of setup,” where employees can log in and assist customers from anywhere. The goal is to gradually replace the outsourced workforce of a few thousand agents with higher-quality, in-house support.

Siemiatkowski admitted that the earlier cost-cutting emphasis had affected service quality.

“As cost unfortunately seems to have been a too predominant evaluation factor when organising this, what you end up having is lower quality. Really investing in the quality of the human support is the way of the future for us.”

This recalibration comes amid broader industry skepticism about over-reliance on AI for customer service.