As AI spells doom for white-collar jobs, Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski is providing a transparent look at how his company is shrinking its workforce in real time.
While about 40% of employers expect to cut their workforces in response to AI automating tasks, how much is an open question. Siemiatkowski expects his workforce to decrease from 3,000 to fewer than 2,000 by 2030, but he doesn’t foresee any layoffs, he recently said on the “20 VC” podcast hosted by venture capitalist Harry Stebbing.
Rather, Klarna is relying on “natural attrition” of about 20% each year, he said, adding that employees spend an average of five years at the company before leaving.
“The reason for that is because I’ve seen the acceleration of AI, and I know we can ship all these things on the existing organization,” Siemiatkowski said.
Klarna launched an OpenAI-powered customer service chatbot in early 2024 that the company claims can do the work equivalent of 800 full-time agents. The “buy now, pay later” platform debuted on the NYSE last September with a $1.37 billion IPO and was valued at $15 billion at the time. The company’s stock price has fallen about 59% since its IPO.
