Buy now, pay later (BNPL) giant Klarna unveiled its latest unconventional innovation.
It’s an artificial intelligence-powered hotline that lets customers speak directly to an AI version of co-founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski.
Anyone calling 1-424-667-5385 in the United States can groan or give accolades about their experience to — or just chitchat with — Siemiatkowski, who answers back in an interactive manner, similar to ChatGPT’s voice mode.
“For decades, customer feedback has been a dull, tedious exercise with filling out forms, rating experiences on arbitrary scales, and completing surveys no one ever reads,” Siemiatkowski said in a June 12 press release. “We’re changing that.”
Customer complaints left on the hotline “are delivered to the right people internally in real time for them to fix,” the CEO said in the release.
When customers dial in, they’re greeted by a digital clone of Siemiatkowski, whose voice was replicated using advanced AI voice-cloning technology. The AI CEO asks callers to describe their most recent experience with Klarna.
PYMNTS tried the hotline and asked the CEO questions beyond Klarna experiences. It answered them even though the queries weren’t related to its product.
“I assume you have some feedback about Klarna for me,” the AI CEO said when PYMNTS called. “Could you tell me about your latest experience using Klarna?”
Asked whether the hotline was a pilot, the AI CEO said it is a permanent addition.
“It’s not about replacing humans, but about combining the best of AI speed with genuine human connection,” the AI said.
When reminded that the human Siemiatkowski hinted at regretting replacing workers with AI because it led to a lower-quality experience, the AI version of the CEO said that was not his understanding.
“We’ve actually been quite consistent in our belief that AI is a powerful tool that, when used correctly, enhances our ability to serve our customers,” the AI CEO told PYMNTS. “It’s about combining the efficiency of AI with the empathy of human interaction.
That assessment aligns with the findings of the PYMNTS Intelligence report “Chief Product Officers Say GenAI Still Needs a Human Chaperone.” While generative AI has near-universal adoption across industries, “significant human oversight is still the norm, even for routine, automated tasks like fraud detection,” the report said.
However, when it comes to generative AI’s impact on staffing, the report showed that at least 79% of respondents surveyed said they did not need to hire as many people in certain parts of the business.
Talking to the AI CEO
Siemiatkowski himself has been outspoken about AI, suggesting that it could one day make his own role obsolete. In January, he wrote on social platform X that AI “is capable of doing all our jobs, my own included,” and cited breakthroughs in AI reasoning.
While the AI CEO on the hotline answers some off-Klarna topics, it steers the conversation toward getting feedback about the payment service itself.
Klarna makes it clear to callers that they are interacting with an AI, not a human, and data will be processed according to the company’s privacy policy. Calls are monitored and recorded.
The AI CEO hotline is the latest of Klarna’s many innovations.
In 2024, the company announced that two-thirds of its customer interactions were handled by AI-powered chatbots, cutting average resolution time from 11 minutes to fewer than 2 minutes and delivering an estimated $40 million in annual savings.
Klarna made headlines in 2022 when it laid off about 10% of its global workforce, citing a shift in focus toward less growth. In May, Siemiatkowski attributed a 40% reduction in staff to the company’s AI investments.
Also in 2022, Klarna expanded into virtual shopping, connecting online shoppers with real in-store employees via chat or video, blending eCommerce convenience with the personalized service of physical retail.
In 2021, the FinTech firm introduced a Pay Now option at checkout to complement its BNPL model, positioning itself as a more comprehensive payments provider.
Most recently, it expanded beyond banking to announce plans to launch an unlimited phone plan in the U.S.
For all PYMNTS AI coverage, subscribe to the daily AI Newsletter.
Read more: