“My wife taught me something,” said Klarna Sebastian CEO Siemiatkowski in the crowd at London SXSW. Was addressed to the titles for the company Looking to hire human workers After saying in the past klarna used artificial intelligence To do a job that would equalize with 700 employees. “Two things can be true at the same time,” he said.
Siemiatkowski said it was true that the company seemed to stop hiring human workers a few years ago and unfold the AI agents who helped reduce customer support costs and increase company revenue per employee. The company had 5,500 employees two years ago and that number is now about 3,000, he said, adding that as the company’s wage costs have been reduced, Klarna is now seeking to reinstall the majority of these money to compensate for cash and equity.
But, he insisted, this does not mean that there is no opportunity for people to work in his company. “We believe that offering human customer service will always be a VIP thing,” he said, comparing it with how people pay more for hand -sewn clothes and not machinery. “So we believe that two things can be done at the same time. We can use AI to automatically remove boring jobs, things that are manual work, but we will also promise our customers to have a human connection.”
He talked about how the company plans to balance AI employees and employees. Siemiatkowski said now, mechanical positions in the company have not shrunk as well as other sections, but notes that this could be shifted.
“What I see internally is a new rise to businessmen who codify themselves,” he said, adding that the challenge that many engineers have these days is that I do not understand. “I think the category of people will become even more valuable progress,” Siemiatkowski continued, especially as they can use AI and use their business understanding in good use.
He uses Chatgpt to help him learn to codify and help him understand more than Klarna’s data. He said this helped Klarna become a better company. Before, he thought he would never cover what he needed to take on a more present role in the database talks in the company.
“I’ll take a loose thread. I’ll throw it in the chatgpt and say,” This makes sense. So? “He said, adding that he is using Chatgpt as a private teacher.
But he also knows that AI is not just for employees. He talked about the increase in fraud and how it affects high -term societies such as his home country. THE Recently reported the Financial Times With the rise of Fintech fraud, pointing out, for example, how sensitive residents in Singapore can be for them because they are more naturally trusting various institutions.
“And AI obviously accelerates this,” Siemiatkowski said.
Siemiatkowski also addressed once again because the company stopped using Salesforce and Workday, saying it was because Klarna wanted to consolidate its data in a way that would be easier to supply AI. She said, for example, if Klarna wanted to gather information about one of her clients, she would have to go through Google, Slack, Workday, Salesforce and so on.
‘We realize that the only way forward will be the integration of [data]”He said, adding that the company stopped using about 1,200 small software services.
For the pending ipo? He said that Klarna could soon move on with it, but otherwise it was non -binding. “I can say that I am happy that there is less disturbance in the market,” he said with a smile.
And if he had a magic wand and could change one thing? Would make the United Kingdom again part of the EU. The crowd then broke out in applause.
