“Innovative step”: Klarna CEO uses Ki-Klone for profit announcement

Klarna uses a Ki-Avatar to announce the business results. Read here which strategy the company has with AI.

The service company Klarna announced that it used a AI double CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski to publish its quarterly results on Monday.

The Ki-Avatar appeared in a video on the official YouTube channel from Klarna to present the highlights of the result. He wore a brown jacket that was reminiscent of the jacket on Siemiatkowski's company photos. Apart from a lack of blinking and a suspicious lip -synchronization, there was no significant indication of AI.

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“Our AI strategy ensures extraordinary returns, we exceed our competitors, our dealership network scales quickly and our next generation products change the money management for millions,” said a presumably human Siemiatkowski in a press release.

Klarna relies on AI

Klarna put his IPO last month due to economic uncertainties. It is currently trying to profile yourself as a AI company. In the press release to the results, Klarna said that his workforce has “streamlined” by about 40 percent since 2022.

In 2022, 800 employees were released, while some in 2024 an exit package was offered quietly and quietly after they were included in a “talent pool”. In February 2024, Klarna announced that his AI-based customer service agents could do the work of 700 human full-time employees.

Klarna has built partnerships with platforms such as Walmart, Ebay and Doorash in the USA. But consumer advocates have long been concerned about the potential for excessive expenses for BNPL services. BNPL stands for 'Buy Now, Pay Later', ie 'buy now, pay later'. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) treated BNPL providers such as credit card lovers under the bidet government, which required stricter protection in relation to disclosures and disputes. On May sixth, the CFPB announced that it would no longer enforce this regulation and that it would consider its abolition.

The net loss more than doubled

In 2024, the Federal Reserve found that the users of BNPL services are more of a high-interest financing instruments and are more susceptible to them. LendingTree, an online credit marketplace, also found in a survey in April that 41 percent of BNPL users in the United States have paid too late in the past twelve months. In the previous year it was 34 percent.

The recent results of Klarna for the first quarter also show that more and more people cannot pay their loans. While sales increased by 13 percent in the year and the company reached 100 million active users, Klarna also doubled its net loss of $ 47 million (41.5 million euros) in the first quarter of 2024 to $ 99 million (87.4 million euros) in the first quarter of 2025. This is an increase of 110 percent.

During the phone conference on May 19, Klarna attributed the increase in losses to various unique costs. Depreciation, stock -based payments and restructuring were mentioned.

The losses among Klarna's consumer loans have also risen. According to the Q1 financial report, this is “due to the accelerated expansion of the products Pay Later and Fair Financing”. In the first quarter, loan losses at Klarna rose by $ 117 million ($ 103.3 million) to $ 136 million ($ 120 million) compared to the previous year.

Klarna did not immediately respond to inquiries about the statement.

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