BNPL giant Klarna says it is fast approching $1 million in revenue per employee, spearheaded by its aggressive uptake of AI.
Since 2022, Klarna has streamlined its workforce by ~40% while raising the share of tech employees from 36% in 2022 to 52% in Q1 2025.
The firm says 96% of employees use AI daily — helping drive a 152% increase in revenue per employee since Q1’23 and putting Klarna on track to reach $1 million in revenue per employee.
Klarna says AI is slashing costs across the business, most noticeable in customer service, where costs per transaction have dropped by 40% since Q1’23 whilst maintaining customer satisfaction levels.
Presenting the results in its Q1 financial filing, CEO Sebastian Siemiaktowski, says: "Our AI-first strategy is driving exceptional returns, we’re outpacing competitors, our merchant network is scaling rapidly, and our next-gen products are reshaping money management for millions"
A year ago, Siemiatkowski boasted in a letter to shareholders that the BNPL giant's AI assistant was performing the work of 700 employees and was part of a strategy to reduce the workforce from 5000 human employees to just 2000.
However, in a recent interview with Bloomberg, he concedes that the strategy may have gone too far.
“As cost unfortunately seems to have been a too predominant evaluation factor when organising this, what you end up having is lower quality,” he says. “Really investing in the quality of the human support is the way of the future for us.”
Klarna is now testing a group of staffers “in an Uber-type of setup” that allows them to work remotely as customer service reps.
“From a brand perspective, a company perspective, I just think it’s so critical that you are clear to your customer that there will be always a human if you want,” says Siemiatkowski.
Nonetheless, Siemiatkowski's devotion to AI was clear in the company's highlights presentation, which was delivered by the CEO's AI avatar to bemused investors: