Klarna's CEO Says AI Can Already Do 'All The Jobs That We, As Humans, Do'—And He's Proving It By Shrinking His Workforce By 22%

Klana CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski isn't sugarcoating AI's impact on jobs. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, he said, “AI can already do all of the jobs that we, as humans, do. It's just a question about how we apply it and use it.”

At Klarna, that application is already in motion. The company stopped hiring in late 2023, leaving its workforce at around 4,500. With a natural turnover rate of about 20%, the team shrank to 3,500 by 2024—without layoffs. 

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Siemiatkowski says the strategy is simple: rather than firing people, they're letting AI take over as positions naturally open up. The result? Klarna now saves about $10 million a year by using AI for marketing, legal tasks, and customer service. Their chatbot alone has replaced 700 human agents, handling inquiries nearly nine minutes faster than people.

The CEO doesn't see this as a bad thing. Instead, he's betting that employees who stay will actually benefit. “As the company saves on salaries, part of that gain is going directly into employee paychecks,” he said. He estimates about 200 workers across different teams have already embraced AI, using it for automation, financial analysis, and content creation.

But not everyone shares Siemiatkowski's view. Nvidia NVDA CEO Jensen Huang has repeatedly stated that AI is meant to “augment, not replace” human workers. That's a more optimistic take, but the reality is a little murkier. 

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According to a recent World Economic Forum survey, 41% of employers expect to reduce staff whose skills become less relevant by 2030. Younger workers are especially uneasy—62% of Gen Z employees think AI will replace their jobs within the next decade, per a 2024 General Assembly survey.

And the pushback is already happening. Klarna itself faced backlash when it revealed that AI-generated marketing content had reduced its reliance on photographers. The reaction was so strong that Siemiatkowski had to address it directly, saying, “I understand why people feel that way. These changes hit people on an emotional level.”

Klarna isn't alone in this. Companies that lean into AI risk public criticism. Last summer, Lattice announced that it would give AI “employees” official records, only to reverse course after online outrage. 

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In another case, unionized dockworkers staged a three-day strike over automation concerns. Even Hollywood got involved—AI's role in replacing actors and writers was a major sticking point in the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.

For now, the biggest AI disruptions seem to be hitting knowledge-based jobs rather than physical ones. Siemiatkowski predicts that while desk jobs will see major changes, roles that require physical labor—like truck driving—will take longer to automate.

Not all companies are cutting jobs, though. Some are using AI to boost productivity instead of reducing staff. A study by Index Ventures found that among 600 European startups, half planned to use AI to hire more people, while only 29% expected their workforce to stay the same.

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