The statement provokes harsh criticism from billing company Klarna: “700 full-time positions are being filled by artificial intelligence”

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Buy now, pay later: Anyone who has ordered online through the account has probably come across the name Klarna. The Swedish billing company has been using its artificial intelligence (AI) assistance service for more than a month to support employees in customer service.

This is now proving to be particularly efficient, as data published by Klarna shows: around two-thirds of the 2.3 million chats that have reached the bot can be handled by AI alone. Customer satisfaction ratings are also high, on par with those of human employees. “AI is doing the work of 700 full-time employees,” Klarna writes in the report.

This statement makes you sit up and listen because the company, founded in 2005, caused a sensation by announcing planned layoffs of ten percent of its 7,000 employees in May 2022. 700 Klarna employees have lost their jobs in the last two years. Now the question arises: Were they fired by AI?

“It has nothing to do with layoffs.”

No, Klarna told American business magazine Fast Company. The newspaper quotes the spokesman: “This has no connection with the staff cuts in May 2022 and it would be wrong to draw such a conclusion.”

The spokesperson continues: “We decided to use the number 700 to draw attention to the long-term consequences of artificial intelligence technology, where we believe it is important to be transparent to create understanding in society.”

Klarna’s founder, Sebastian Siemiatkowski (42), decided to freeze recruitment in December 2023. He explained to the Telegraph that the use of artificial intelligence means fewer employees are needed. “The company will shrink,” he says. According to him, artificial intelligence poses a “major threat to many jobs.”

Source :Blick