May 12, 2025 11:50:00

Fintech company that had actively introduced AI customer service and stopped hiring is resuming human recruitment due to 'deteriorating service quality'

Klarna, a Swedish fintech company that had been aggressively introducing AI into its customer service, boasting that its AI assistants would reduce the average time it takes to resolve a customer issue from 11 minutes to 2 minutes while maintaining the same customer satisfaction as

human agents , has now resumed hiring human agents instead of AI , citing a decline in the quality of its service.

Klarna Turns From AI to Real Person Customer Service - Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-08/klarna-turns-from-ai-to-real-person-customer-service

Klarna changes its AI tune and again recruits humans for customer service | CX Dive
https://www.customerexperiencedive.com/news/klarna-reinvests-human-talent-customer-service-AI-chatbot/747586/

Klarna is a Swedish company that grew on the back of the fintech boom, but after the boom subsided it needed to cut costs, so it partnered with OpenAI in 2023. It announced its AI assistant in February 2024.

In a statement announcing the AI assistant, Klarna explained that 'in one month of operation, the AI assistant handled 2.3 million conversations, which is two-thirds of Klarna's customer service chat volume, and would do the work of 700 full-time human agents.' Customer satisfaction was on par with that of human agents, and repeat inquiries were reduced by 25% due to easier-to-understand explanations. The time to resolution was reduced from 11 minutes to 2 minutes, which led to $40 million in revenue for Klarna.

Klarna AI assistant handles two-thirds of customer service chats in its first month | Klarna International
https://www.klarna.com/international/press/klarna-ai-assistant-handles-two-thirds-of-customer-service-chats-in-its-first-month/

Klarna co-founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski had planned to further replace the company with AI, but changed course, saying that the strategy was not appropriate. The company will resume hiring new customer service staff, which had been suspended.

CEO Siemiatkowski

Speaking at Klarna's headquarters in Stockholm, Siemiatkowski said the company is trialling remote staff working 'more like Uber' and ultimately aims to replace thousands of staff it outsources.

'Unfortunately, (the use of AI) has been too focused on cost as an evaluation factor, which ultimately leads to a decline in quality. Investing in the quality of human support is the way to go,' Siemiatkowski said.

Julie Geller of Info-Tech Research Group, an information research firm, told news site CX Dive, 'The key is that AI should complement human agents, not replace them. Automating routine tasks can improve efficiency, but customers should still have ready access to a human agent, especially when emotions or complex circumstances are involved.'

'From a brand standpoint, and from a company standpoint, I think it's really important to make it clear to customers that there's always a human agent available if they need it,' Siemiatkowski told Bloomberg.