Klarna: AI lets us cut thousands of jobs – but pay more

The buy now, pay later firm Klarna is seeking to get rid of almost half its employees in the coming years through efficiencies it says arise out of its investment in artificial intelligence (AI).

The firm has already cut its workforce from 5,000 to 3,800 in the past year, and wants to reduce that to 2,000 employees by using AI in marketing and customer service.

Boss Sebastian Siemiatkowski told the BBC the job cuts would mean Klarna could pay its remaining workers more.

But he said the government needed to think about what to do about AI, which he predicted would have “a dramatic impact” on jobs and society.

“I think politicians already today should consider whether there are other alternatives of how they could support people that may be effective,” he told the Today programme, on BBC Radio 4.

He said it was “too simplistic” to simply say new jobs would be created in the future.

“I mean, maybe you can become an influencer, but it’s hard to do so if you are 55-years-old,” he said.

The recent proliferation of AI has put its benefits and risks under the spotlight.

Earlier this year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it believed AI would impact nearly 40% of all jobs, and it would “likely worsen overall inequality”.

In other sectors, such as the games industry, developers have warned they are already losing work to AI.