Klarna Says Its AI Assistant Does the Work of 700 People

Klarna, the $7 billion “purchase now, pay later” startup used by firms like Versace, Nike, and Wayfair, stated on Tuesday that its AI chatbot “is doing the equal work of 700 full-time [customer service] brokers.”

The assertion arrives on the heels of Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski’s announcement in December that the corporate is not hiring outdoors of engineering and that AI would choose up the duties of laid-off staff.

^{Sebastian Siemiatkowski, chief govt officer of Klarna Holding AB, at IFGS 2022 summit on the Guildhall in London, U.Okay., on Monday, April 4, 2022. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photos}

Klarna’s OpenAI-powered AI chatbot has been dwell for a few month, and the corporate is “extremely excited” about it, in accordance with Siemiatkowski. The AI assistant handles questions on refunds, returns, funds, cancellations, and extra in 35 languages in often beneath two minutes. The earlier time of a customer support interplay with out the chatbot was 11 minutes.

The AI bot has taken on 75% of Klarna’s customer support chats, or about 2.3 million conversations up to now, and achieved buyer satisfaction scores akin to these of human brokers, in accordance with the corporate.

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Klarna moreover reviews that the chatbot may enhance the corporate’s earnings by $40 million this 12 months. The launch is a step ahead towards Klarna’s purpose of a “absolutely AI-powered monetary assistant.”

In the meantime, customers have had blended experiences with the chatbot, with some questioning Klarna’s declare that it was attainable to exchange 700 human assist brokers in a month with AI. Gergely Orosz, an writer and author at The Pragmatic Engineer, tried out the chatbot and said that the AI “recites precise docs and passes me on to human assist quick.”

“It acts principally as a filter to get to buyer assist,” Orosz wrote on X, previously Twitter. “As quickly as I ask or instruct something that’s not a doc, I am *growth* speaking with a human agent.”

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Again in May 2022, Siemiatkowski publicly posted a listing of the 700 staff Klarna laid off that month with their private contact data. Klarna told Fast Company on Tuesday that the AI bot’s productiveness is “by no means related to the workforce reductions.”

Klarna is reportedly discussing a possible U.S. preliminary public providing this 12 months at a valuation of round $20 billion, per Bloomberg.