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Klarna, the buy now, pay later fintech company, has implemented an AI-powered chatbot to manage two-thirds of its customer service inquiries, effectively performing the equivalent work of 700 full-time customer service agents.
Collaborating with OpenAI, Klarna developed this AI assistant to handle customer service chats within its app. In its first month, the chatbot engaged in 2.3 million conversations, with Klarna estimating a $40 million profit improvement this year as a result.
Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Klarna’s co-founder and CEO, expressed excitement about this AI breakthrough, emphasizing the superior experiences it offers customers, along with better returns for investors and more engaging challenges for employees. However, he also urged careful consideration of AI’s societal impact.
While customers can still opt for live agent interaction, Klarna assures that the chatbot implementation won’t lead to layoffs. Instead, the company expanded partnerships with third-party customer service providers last year.
The AI chatbot matches human agents in customer satisfaction but operates much faster, resolving typical requests in under two minutes, compared to the previous 11 minutes. It also reduces repeat inquiries by 25% and handles various queries, including refunds, returns, payments, cancellations, disputes, and invoice inaccuracies, in 35 languages across 23 countries.
Brad Lightcap, COO at OpenAI, praised Klarna’s AI adoption and application, highlighting their partnership’s potential to enhance productivity and improve daily lives through AI.
