Klarna saw revenue rise 27% in the first half of 2024, buoyed by its aggressive use of AI, which CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski says could help the BNPL giant halve its workforce.
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As it gears up for a widely anticipated $20 billion IPO, Klarna saw first half adjusted profits hit $66 million, compared to an adjusted loss of $45 million in the same period in 2023.
In his letter to shareholders, CEO Siemiatkowski hailed the impact of AI, revealing: “Our AI assistant now performs the work of 700 employees, reducing the average resolution time from 11 minutes to just 2, while maintaining the same customer satisfaction scores as human agents.”
The company has trimmed its workforce through natural attrition from 5000 to 3800 over the last year and Siemiatkowski is expecting more dramatic reductions.
In an interview with the Financial Times, he says: “Not only can we do more with less, but we can do much more with less. Internally, we speak directionally about 2,000 [employees]. We don’t want to put a specific deadline on that.”
To achieve this, the firm has begun a hiring freeze outside of engineers, using natural attrition rather than layoffs.
Klarna is also reaping the benefits of its push into the US, where it now works with a quarter of the top 100 merchants, driving a 93% year-on-year rise in gross profit in the country.
Recently the company has also muscled into retail banks’ territory, rolling out an “account” where customers can store money and cashback rewards as it looks to embed itself in customers’ everyday spending and saving.
