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.
Klarna has more than halved its workforce since 2022, going from more than 7,000 employees to less than 3,000. Siemiatkowski previously said that he believes that AI is capable of doing all jobs, including his own.
“I am not necessarily super excited about this,” he previously wrote on X. “On the contrary, my work to me is a super important part of who I am, and realizing it might become unnecessary is gloomy.”
The future of the workforce
Siemiatkowski has previously called out other “tech bros” for not being “to the point” about AI disruption because of fear of negative backlash. He says he does not want to be “one of them.”
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has emerged as a vocal advocate for preparing for a large-scale disruption in the workforce. Last year, he warned AI could eliminate 50% of entry-level jobs and lead to an unemployment rate between 10% and 20%.
“I’m more in Dario’s camp. I want to be honest about the fact that I do think there’s going to be a very big shift,” Siemiatkowski said.
“I think more like Elon that it might lead to a golden age of humanity where you know AI does more of jobs and more people can enjoy themselves and do other things, that we can have a richer society,” Siemiatkowski said, referring to Elon Musk’s prediction that work will be optional in 10 to 20 years due to AI and robots taking over most roles.
Siemiatkowski shared one part of Klarna’s business he thinks AI could never replace: employees who work directly with retailers, and where business depends on relationships.
“I have people in Portland talking to Nike. I have people in China talking to Shein. I have people in Amsterdam talking to Adyen,” he explained. “I’m still gonna argue that it’s going to be vital to offer a human connection there.”
Siemiatkowski said that while the company has shrunk, it has increased employee compensation by nearly 50% due to higher profits, creating a safety net for employees, even as their jobs may disappear due to AI.
“I’m an optimist at heart, but I also want to be a realist around what’s going to happen in the shorter term, and it’s going to be a lot of turmoil in this.”
