Klarna Cuts 40% of Staff as AI Takes Over

Klarna is shrinking. Fast. The Swedish payments giant has confirmed it is down nearly 40% of its workforce compared to three years ago. CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski says the drop is intentional. He points to artificial intelligence (AI) as the main reason the company can run with fewer people.

Key Facts

• The Numbers: Staff count fell from roughly 5,500 to about 3,000.
• The AI Factor: Computer programs now do the work of 700 customer service agents.
• The Method: Most cuts came from a hiring freeze, not direct layoffs.
• Source: CNBC, Payment Expert

The Robot Customer Service Rep

Klarna isn’t just cutting costs. It is changing how it works. The company says its AI assistant now handles two-thirds of all customer service chats. That is a massive volume of work. Management claims this AI tool does the job of 700 full-time human agents.

This saves the company money—about $40 million a year by some estimates. But it isn’t perfect. Reports show that customer satisfaction dipped when the bots took over. People complained about robotic answers and loops they couldn’t escape. To fix this, Klarna is now testing a “gig-worker” model. They want to bring humans back to handle complex problems, but on flexible, short-term contracts instead of full-time jobs.

The “Silent” Layoff

Unlike a traditional mass layoff where everyone gets fired on a Tuesday, Klarna played the long game. They used “natural attrition.” This means when an employee quit to go to another job, Klarna simply did not hire a replacement.

Siemiatkowski told reporters, “We have simply communicated to our employees that what we’re going to do is we’re gonna shrink.” By freezing hiring and letting people leave on their own, the company shed over 2,000 roles without paying massive severance packages all at once. This strategy lowers the headcount quietly but steadily.

What This Means for You

This is a warning sign for the whole industry. Klarna proves that big companies can use AI to stop hiring. If you work in customer support or basic data processing, your competition isn’t just other people anymore. It is software. The company plans to keep shrinking until it hits a “leaner” size, betting that AI can handle the growth.