Following the release of Klarna’s AI strategy, one thing is clear, CEOs must actively encourage and train employees if AI is to be harnessed effectively.
Central to its transformation, Klarna’s CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski has embraced AI, using it to automate key functions like customer service and internal operations.
The buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) company reports savings of US$10m annually with its adoption of Gen AI in its marketing department alone. Cutting its sales and marketing budget by 11% – with AI responsible for 37% of cost reduction benefits – Klarna has embraced multiple leading Gen AI tools including Midjourney, DALL-E and Firefly, Klarna has reduced image production costs by a significant US$6m.
Klarna CMO David Sandström said: “AI is helping us become leaner, faster and more responsive to what our customers care about, leading to a much, much better experience. And we’re actually driving more marketing activity while saving tens of millions of dollars a year.”
Outside of marketing, Klarna has also adopted Gen AI in its customer service through its partnership with OpenAI. The two organisations collaborated on the development of an AI assistant that has taken on the equivalent work of 700 full-time agents.
Empowering the workforce with AI
With 87% of the Klarna workforce regularly using Gen AI – namely the OpenAI AI assistant – to support them in completely daily tasks.
Sebastian noted: “We push everyone to test, test, test and explore. As Klarna continues to discover applications for OpenAI’s tech, there’s the potential to take the business to new heights.
“We’re aimed at achieving a new level of employee empowerment, enhancing both our team’s performance and the customer experience.”
Whist Klarna’s AI adoption is being driven from the Top down, not all companies can say the same with many organisations experiencing workforce innovation and executive hesitancy.
Dr Raoul-Gabriel Urma, founder and Chairman of Cambridge Spark takes these figures as a stark warning for others.
“Today’s workforce, especially those entering in the last few years, are AI-native. They’re going to use AI tools to power their output and make themselves more efficient, and there’s very little CEOs can do to stop them – and why would they want to?” says Raoul-Gabriel.
He adds: “Few CEOs will actively try to ban AI, which is an impossible task. But there’s a huge gap opening up between executives who actively encourage, train, and facilitate the use of AI in their companies, and those who merely pay it lip service and continue on business as usual. If these latter CEOs don’t wake up now, they’ll find themselves sleepwalking their firms into irrelevancy, as AI-enabled companies leave them in their dust.”
With staff using AI tools at an increasingly high rate, organisations are experiencing this kind of adoption process outpacing formal procedures.
A recent Deloitte study found that one in three employees who use GenAI for work pay for it themselves, highlighting a gap between CEOs who are actively encouraging and training employees with AI and those who just continue on business as usual.
Urma puts this down to workforce innovation and executive hesitancy.
“For CEOs today, Klarna’s stunning returns on their AI strategy should be a clear shot across the bow. The company has thoroughly integrated AI into their workforce’s day-to-day operations, and they are now reaping the rewards of this drive. Other CEOs should be looking to do the same and as fast as possible,” says Raoul-Gabriel.
“It’s not enough to just sit back and act like it’s business as usual – CEOs need to be on the front lines, actively encouraging AI’s use and driving its adoption with training, courses, and incentives. Those that don’t, will find their firms floundering in the wake of companies with fully AI-educated workforces.”
