Marketers often equate growth with spending. Spending more on media, spending more on bigger teams, spending more splashier campaigns. 

Klarna used a starkly different blueprint. The Swedish buy now pay later (BNPL) fintech giant focused on optimizing instead of adding. And at the heart of that strategy was, you guessed it, AI. 

This week, Case Studied explores how Klarna saved and scaled with an AI-driven, operational overhaul.

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The Brief:

After operating in Europe for 10 years, Klarna brought its services to the U.S. in 2015. Affirm (founded 2012) and Afterpay (founded 2014) were already in the market, helping BNPL fintech grow and become its own market.  

By 2021, Klarna was working with 250,000 global retailers and reached $45.6 billion in valuation. But economic headwinds hit hard. 

In 2022, Klarna laid off 10% of its global workforce and completed a funding round that brought its valuation tumbling down to $6.7 billion from its 2021 peak. Then in 2023, they reported a net loss of $244 million. It became clear that the company’s path to profitability—and a potential IPO—required a reset.

Enter AI.

Klarna didn’t just dip its toes in. It dove headfirst into AI with an operational overhaul.

The Execution:

Rather than make AI a buzzword on a slide deck or landing page, Klarna integrated it into nearly every corner of its business, fast. Here are the main three ways it was integrated:

1. AI as a customer service agent

Klarna made a headline-grabbing move in February 2024 when it launched an OpenAI-powered assistant capable of handling customer service inquiries. In the first month, it managed two-thirds of all customer service chats, which was equivalent to the workload of 700 full-time agents according to a press release. 

2. AI as a content creator

Internally, Klarna turned to generative AI tools like Midjourney, DALL-E, and Firefly for image generation and editing. For final adjustments, they used Topaz Gigapixel and Photoroom. Using these tools, Klarna generated over 1,000 images in the first three months of 2024, reducing the image development timeline from 6 weeks to 7 days (this included checks for brand consistency, image quality, and legal compliance).

For copywriting, Klarna used an internal tool called Copy Assist, leading to a 25% reduction in spending on external marketing suppliers including translation, production, and CRM, with run rate savings of $4 million. According to DMO David Sandström, “We’re actually driving more marketing activity while saving tens of millions of dollars a year.”

3. AI as strategic narrative

For Klarna, AI became central to the company’s IPO narrative. In January 2024, Klarna announced it had reduced its overall marketing spend by $10 million annually thanks to generative AI, while increasing output. 

Then, in 2024 Klarna’s CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski revealed plans to decrease headcount by 50% in the coming years. He said, “Not only can we do more with less but we can do much more with less.” 

To further bolster AI adoption among employees, the company invested in a custom-built internal AI assistant, Kiki, using OpenAI’s Large Language Models (LLMs). According to Klarna, Kiki fields around 2,000 questions from employees daily, helping to manage and distribute internal knowledge.

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The Results:

Klarna created some eye popping gains through AI efficiency. Their AI assistant handled 2.3 million customer conversations in its first month alone. Customer satisfaction with AI assistants stayed on par with human support, while average resolution times dropped from 11 minutes to under 2. It also proved to be more accurate in errand resolution, resulting in a 25% drop in repeat inquiries. These AI assistants were estimated to drive a $40 million improvement in profit. 

On the marketing front, Klarna saw a $6 million reduction in image production costs, despite creating significantly more images and running more campaigns. The company’s internal AI adoption rate hit 87%, with 9 out of 10 employees using it in their daily work. Specifically, communication teams garnered 93% adoption, with marketing totalling 88% adoption. 

While Klarna positioned itself as an AI-native fintech platform, that messaging didn’t come without criticism. Siemiatowski was met with backlash when he posted to X that “genAI will save us $10m in m marketing this year. We’re spending less on photographers, image banks, and marketing agencies…Our in-house marketing team is HALF the size it was last year but is producing MORE!” 

One person responded, “If you still had a bigger marketing team, they probably would’ve advised you not to post this.” Another stated, “Flexing that you fired half your marketing team is just really bad.” Some also remarked that the quality of AI-generated images looked bad in their opinion. 

Despite the critiques about replacing human labor with AI, Klarna’s AI transformation seemed to be paying off. They reported a net profit of $21 million in 2024. And the company filed for IPO in March 2025 before pausing the action just last week in the wake of Trump’s tariff announcements. 

In an SEC filing, Klarna cited: “A downturn in the general economic environment or a slower pace of economic growth, including as a result of changes in international trade policies, multilateral trade agreements or imposition of new tariffs, taxes and other restrictions on global trade, or changes to immigration policies or migration patterns, can lead to decreased consumer spending and adversely affect the financial condition of our merchants.”

Key Takeaways:

1) Explore efficiencies and innovations 

The basic concept of Klarna’s overhaul was the ol’ “do more with less” adage. And they fully took advantage of how they could execute that concept using some of the innovative tools available to us today. 

Look at where you can explore new tools and resources or get more out of the ones you already have. If you see an opportunity, test it out and see if it could work for your team, your department, or your entire company.

2) Frame your AI narrative

Klarna didn’t just use AI internally, they made it part of their external story. From media interviews to investor briefings, AI wasn’t positioned as part of Klarna’s competitive edge and they showed memorable numbers to prove it. 

Get specific about your AI approach. How do you use it, what are the guardrails—cover all the basics. Get clear on the strategy internally and continue the discussions as the technology evolves.

3) Tread mindfully with AI

In showcasing their cost-savings and productivity, Klarna rubbed many folks the wrong way with how they spoke about AI’s role in their business. The backlash was strong enough for the CEO to delete his post on X about the company’s marketing cost savings. 

When it comes to AI’s impact on creative fields, be intentional about the language you use. It’s a topic that can stir strong feelings for many folks so treat the topic with the sensitivity it warrants and be mindful about how you discuss it.

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