Klarna's AI assistant: the claims, the headlines and what happened next

Klarna's press release of 27 February 2024 said its AI assistant, in its first month, had 2.3 million conversations, two-thirds of its customer service chats, and was doing the equivalent work of 700 full-time agents. It said customer satisfaction was on par with human agents, repeat inquiries fell by 25%, and customers resolved their errands in under two minutes compared with 11 minutes before. The assistant ran in 23 markets, 24 hours a day, in more than 35 languages.

Klarna estimated it would drive a $40 million improvement in profit in 2024. That was a forecast, not a result. The release also said customers could still choose to talk to a live agent. All the figures were Klarna's own.

“The equivalent work of 700 full-time agents” is a measure of volume. Much of the coverage reported it as 700 people replaced or 700 jobs cut. The release did not say that. It is a useful reminder to read the source before quoting the number, which applies to AI claims in both directions.

In May 2025, in an interview with Bloomberg reported by Entrepreneur, chief executive Sebastian Siemiatkowski said “there will always be a human if you want” and that investing in the quality of human support was “the way of the future for us”. Entrepreneur reported that Klarna was recruiting remote customer service staff again, and much of the coverage read this as Klarna reversing course on AI.

Later that month, in an interview republished by CMSWire, Siemiatkowski described it differently: the assistant was still handling about 1.3 million errands a month, and its ability to deal with more complex errands had increased, “kind of eating up into level-two support”. In other words, more work for the AI and better human support for those who want it, not one replacing the other.

Reporting on Klarna's third-quarter 2025 earnings call by CX Dive said the company described the assistant as doing the work of more than 853 full-time agents, up from 700, with satisfaction still on par with human agents. In a podcast interview in February 2026, also reported by CX Dive, Siemiatkowski said that if AI can do customer service, “it's going to be the cheap customer service”, and that the future of a VIP experience would be the human connection.

Measure quality, not only cost. Klarna's own release led with satisfaction and repeat inquiries alongside volume, and those are the numbers that tell you whether customers are actually being helped. Time saved means little if the same customer has to come back.

Keep a person available, and make the route to them easy. Klarna offered it from day one and later made it a promise. For a small business it is also the simplest safeguard against the failures in our five real cases.

Start where AI is strong and humans are expensive. Routine, high-volume questions with clear answers suit an assistant; judgement, complaints and anything involving money or commitments should reach a person, with the AI preparing the ground. That is how we design the workflows we build: the AI drafts, sorts and records, and a named person approves where a mistake would matter.