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Sebastian Siemiatkowski is fully embracing the concept that his buy-now-pay-later startup Klarna, which is headed towards an IPO, is an AI company. In a recent update on quarterly earnings, it was actually his AI avatar (pictured above) that presented the highlights in a YouTube video released by the company.
Despite Siemiatkowski’s insistence on the AI aspect, it wasn’t immediately obvious that it was AI. There were some subtle hints, like the fact that the AI version didn’t blink as much as a human would. The voice synchronization was good, but not flawless. Additionally, the AI was dressed in a brown jacket that resembled the one worn by Siemiatkowski in a widely circulated corporate photo, although the shirt was different.
Klarna, preparing for its public debut, used the updated financials to highlight AI as a key factor in reaching 100 million users. The company attributed its fourth consecutive profitable quarter to the use of AI, noting that it had “streamlined its workforce by ~40%” which resulted in a revenue per employee of nearly $1 million.
During an interview with CNBC, Siemiatkowski mentioned that the company had reduced its workforce from about 5,000 to almost 3,000 employees.
While the notion of an AI replacing a CEO has been a subject of jokes, it may not be completely far-fetched. Despite the fact that some CEOs, especially in startups, are involved in hands-on tasks like coding or reaching out to potential clients, their main responsibilities involve setting strategies, making decisions, and being accountable for them.
Who could be better suited for these tasks than an AI constructed on a SATA reasoning model, capable of analyzing vast amounts of company data, studying successful business strategies, and using that knowledge to make decisions? A study published in the Harvard Business Review last year suggested that, based on a model using GPT-4o, an AI could generally outperform human CEOs.
Nevertheless, the AI CEO in the study was quickly dismissed by the virtual board due to its poor handling of “black swan events, such as market collapses during the COVID-19 pandemic.” Despite this setback, supporters of AI argue that these are early stages and future AI CEOs may learn to excel in such situations as well.
Klarna declined to provide further comments.
