Klarna CEO says the company stopped hiring a year ago because AI ‘can already do all of the jobs’

“In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Siemiatkowski said he’s “of the opinion that AI can already do all of the jobs that we as humans do.”

“It’s just a question of how we apply it and use it,” he said.

“I think what we’ve done internally hasn’t been reported as widely. We stopped hiring about a year ago, so we were 4,500 and now we’re 3,500,” Siemiatkowski said. “We have a natural attrition like every tech company. People stay about five years, so 20% leave every year. By not hiring, we’re simply shrinking, right?”

Siemiatkowski said his company has told employees that “what’s going to happen is the total salary cost of Klarna is going to shrink, but part of the gain of that is going to be seen in your paycheck.”

Thanks for that. From a company who prey on vulnerable people who can’t afford the upfront cost of a product that they probably didn’t need in the first place.

By this logic should he resign? Why doesn’t Klarna have an AI c suite? An AI board of directors?

“In 2021, the company was Europe’s most valuable private tech company, at a $45.6 billion valuation. However, their valuation was cut to $6.7 billion in 2022 after struggling to attract additional outside investment.”

And in 10 years when no junior developers have been able to get jobs, the tech industry will look confused and ask why there is a shortage of skilled labor.
People are just expected to do hobby projects on a professional level until they are needed, I guess.

It’s going absolutely beautiful when this gentleman gets a rude awakening

Because of this thread, I went to Google’s AI and asked it generally how to make a core decision about my job. What type of product should I use to meet a certain application involved in my business. Answer:

>Recommendation:

>I recommend consulting with a reputable XXX manufacturer or a XXX specialist experienced in XXX applications. They can help you choose the most suitable XXX for your specific needs and provide guidance on installation and operation.

Basically the AI said “you should talk to a human”.

Above that were some generalities that I didn’t include that you could easily find on a google search and had the depth of understanding of someone with approximately 1/2 hour of working experience.

Basically, if your job can be replaced by someone who can do it with a short number of web searches, you should be concerned about AI. If not, then this might be a weee bit overblown.

Another Company to avoid.

Thank you Mr. Sebastian Siemiatkowski.

Usury at its finest.

Guys its a buy-now-pay-later fintech company. Maybe we shouldn’t take the word of the ceo of a glorified payday loan company at face value. Consumer financing like this is a competitive, low margin business where, once the product is built, hiring adds a cost without improving marginal revenue. The meaningful hiring phase of this company was over years ago. Also, they have struggled over the last 3 years. Valuation dropped 85% from 2021 to 2022.

In other words their business model is simple to replicate. Competitors on your marks!

Surely this has nothing to do with the fact that Klarnas valuation dropped into the shitter like 2 years ago and the consumer market is still really bad and recovering from inflation (especially in Europe, and nordics especially, which is Klarnas primary market) which impacts Klarna particularly bad since almost all of their revenue is based off a revenue-share model with their connected merchants. And surely it has nothing to do with giants like Apple trying to break into the “pay later” business which threatens Klarnas entire existence, but specifically their push into the US market.

No, the only reason they are not hiring is AI. lol.

I’d bet there’s a whole headquarters full of his employees that are freaking out because their shit AI keeps fucking everything up.

Somebody is going to catch the blame when AI drops the ball and there’s no chance it’ll be this dude. It’ll be some grunt that was tasked with double checking everything when they were just doing it fine before on their own.

So if AI can do everything his company does, maybe his company doesn’t need to exist either?

20% is not normal attrition rates. Normal attrition rates are between 13% to 18% or about 15%. They’re at 22%.

My assumption here is that if a payment service (Klarna is a buy now pay later service) is that loose with numbers, they might have issues when the music stops. I wouldn’t short but I would watch for shorting.

At what point will CEOs be replaced by AI. Or Artificial Unintelligence.

It seems his PR AI agent is doing a bang up job… he’s going to get so much attention for this , and he’s not gonna be happy with the results. I wonder if he’ll double down and use his Crisis Management AI agent, or hire a professional.