AI enabled Klarna to halve its workforce—now, the CEO is warning workers that other ‘tech bros’ are sugarcoating just how badly it’s about to impact jobs | Fortune
https://fortune.com/2025/10/10/klarna-ceo-sebastian-siemiatkowski-halved-workforce-says-tech-ceos-sugarcoating-ai-impact-on-jobs-mass-unemployment-warning/
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From the article
While some executives have tried to calm fears by saying AI will create new jobs, the 44-year-old buy now, pay later billionaire argues that optimism can be misleading—especially in the near term. He singled out that in Brussels, thousands of people still work as translators, a job he says can already largely be done by AI.
“Society will have to figure out what are we going to do because yes, new jobs will be created, but in the shorter term, that doesn’t help the Brussels translator. He’s not going to become a YouTube influencer tomorrow,” he added.
Irony this comes from a ‘buy now pay later billionaire’ a business model that is wholly unsustainable and will inevitably crash.
Just ask him what he thinks about AI replacing CEO positions, which it is definitely capable of doing.
This is like when companies started putting ‘blockchain’ in their names just to get a piece of the bubble.
I remember when I got laid off this time last year. We were told AI has rendered our jobs obsolete. I was working on the tech, it wasn’t ready then, still isn’t ready now, and the company is trying to frantically fill my old position.
Point is, AI was never good enough to take my job, the company just needed to layoff some folks to make it look like the tech was better than it was. I think that’s a lot of what’s going on right now: companies made some bad bets and need to cover their tracks
Is there anyone who formerly worked at Klarna and can confirm his claim that he indeed halved his workforce? Or maybe he’s just talking out of his ass…
If AI replaces everyone, who’s gonna have a job to be able to buy things from all these companies.
Has he flipped again? This was only a few months ago:
“After years of depicting Klarna as an AI-first company, the fintech’s CEO reversed himself, telling Bloomberg the company was once again recruiting humans after the AI approach led to “lower quality.” An IBM survey reveals this is a common occurrence for AI use in business, where just 1 in 4 projects delivers the return it promised and even fewer are scaled up. “