- Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski spoke about AI and the workforce.
- Siemiatkowski said AI « can already do all of the jobs » humans do.
- He said Klarna stopped hiring a year ago despite the company advertising jobs online.
Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski is all-in on artificial intelligence at the fintech company.
In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Siemiatkowski said he’s « of the opinion that AI can already do all of the jobs that we as humans do. »
« It’s just a question of how we apply it and use it, » he said.
Klarna is a payment service that offers consumers « buy now, pay later » options. According to its website, the company is connected with more than 575,000 retailers.
The increased attention around AI has raised concerns about how it will affect careers and the workplace. A 2023 report by McKinsey & Company estimated that 12 million American workers will have to change occupations by 2030 as AI technology develops.
During the interview, Siemiatkowski said Klarna stopped hiring last year.
« I think what we’ve done internally hasn’t been reported as widely. We stopped hiring about a year ago, so we were 4,500 and now we’re 3,500, » Siemiatkowski said. « We have a natural attrition like every tech company. People stay about five years, so 20% leave every year. By not hiring, we’re simply shrinking, right? »
Siemiatkowski said his company has told employees that « what’s going to happen is the total salary cost of Klarna is going to shrink, but part of the gain of that is going to be seen in your paycheck. »
Although Klarna’s website is advertising open positions at the time of writing, a spokesperson told Business Insider the company is not « actively recruiting » to expand its workforce. Rather, Klarna is backfilling « some essential roles, » primarily in engineering.
2024-12-14 20:56:38
