Was that Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski on the display or an AI clone?
When “purchase now, pay later” fintech firm Klarna reported its first-quarter monetary outcomes this week by way of video, it positioned a sensible AI clone of Siemiatkowski, 43, entrance and middle. The clone began the one-minute, 23-second presentation by admitting it was an “AI avatar, right here to share Klarna’s Q1 2025 highlights.”
Associated: ‘Not Essentially Tremendous Excited About This’: Klarna’s CEO Says AI Can Take Over All Jobs, Together with His Personal
In accordance with Klarna’s first quarter 2025 outcomes, the corporate hit 100 million lively shoppers within the first quarter of 2025, a brand new report and the quickest progress in two years. Klarna additionally delivered its fourth worthwhile quarter in a row, reaching an adjusted working revenue of $3 million. Income rose 15% year-over-year to $701 million for Q1, with the U.S. driving 33% of that progress.
On the decision, Siemiatkowski’s likeness voiced that AI was the explanation behind the corporate’s progress. Klarna stated that 96% of its roughly 3,000 staff use AI every day, leading to a 152% improve in income per worker because the first quarter of 2023. The corporate is aiming to finally attain $1 million in income per worker with the assistance of AI, up from $575,000 per employee final 12 months.
“AI helps us work smarter, scale sooner, and ship extra worth,” the AI clone acknowledged.
Regardless of being upfront with the admission that it was an AI clone giving the outcomes, Entrepreneur had a tough time telling the AI aside from Siemiatkowski.
Associated: Duolingo Put Its Sarcastic Teen Chatbot to Work on Its Earnings Name
TechCrunch famous that the clone did not blink as a lot as a human would, and its voice did not sync up completely with its lip actions.
Siemiatkowski’s AI avatar stated within the presentation that Klarna is utilizing AI for advertising and marketing, product improvement, buyer help, and insights.
“100 million shoppers, revenue, progress, and AI is the engine driving all of it,” the avatar acknowledged.
Klarna leads the U.S. market as the most important “Pay in 4” mortgage firm and was named Walmart’s unique installment mortgage supplier within the U.S. in March. Nonetheless, its web loss for the primary three months of 2025 was $99 million, greater than double the $47 million it reported on the similar time final 12 months.
The corporate first showcased an AI avatar of Siemiatkowski in December to speak about earnings for the third quarter of 2024. The voice of the AI avatar had a distinct accent, was extra robotic, and the voice sync lagged greater than the newer model, however it was capable of ship the leads to one minute and 22 seconds.
Klarna has labored for years to place itself as an AI-first firm, reducing its workforce by 40% since 2022, and asking staff to make use of AI to fill within the gaps. In February 2024, the corporate introduced a customer support AI that it claimed may do the work of 700 human customer support brokers and deal with questions in additional than 35 languages.
Associated: There Are New Guidelines for ‘Purchase Now, Pay Later’ Packages — This is What to Know
In accordance with Klarna’s first-quarter outcomes, AI has had probably the most profound impression on Klarna’s customer support division. AI slashed prices by 40% whereas sustaining buyer satisfaction charges, the corporate stated.
Nonetheless, AI alone is just not sufficient to deal with buyer requests. Earlier this month, Siemiatkowski reversed an AI-induced hiring freeze to rent human staff once more for customer support. He informed Bloomberg that it was “so important” to supply human help for patrons in the event that they wanted it.
Klarna filed for a U.S. preliminary public providing in March however paused its plans a month later because of market volatility. The corporate is now planning to go public later this 12 months.
