Klarna's founder and CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, has once again taken to social media to clarify the company's decision to replace Salesforce's flagship CRM product with its own homegrown AI system, emphasizing that he doesn't think others will – or should – follow his lead.

Last September, the news that Klarna had developed its own in-house AI system based on OpenAI's ChatGPT, allowing it to drop its contract for Salesforce CRM, went viral. The project led to replacing 700 full-time contract employees and a savings of approximately $40 million annually. However, Salesforce founder and CEO Mark Benioff expressed skepticism about how Klarna is managing its customer data and meeting its compliance needs.

As Klarna prepares to go public next month, Siemiatkowski is keen to set the record straight. He clarified that the project involved consolidating data from various SaaS systems, including Salesforce, onto Klarna's own internally developed tech stack. The company is using Swedish company Neo4j and its graph database, among other technologies, to achieve this.

Siemiatkowski emphasized that Klarna did not replace SaaS with a large language model (LLM), and storing CRM data in an LLM would have its limitations. Instead, the company developed an internal tech stack to bring data and knowledge together, allowing its internal AI to use this knowledge and quickly deploy new interfaces and interactions.

This development is the latest iteration of the age-old debate in enterprise software: build it vs. buy it. Siemiatkowski doesn't think most companies will opt to build their own next-generation AI-centric software, citing the complexity and resources required.

However, he predicts that the SaaS industry is heading for major consolidation. Siemiatkowski believes that fewer SaaS companies will consolidate the market, and they will offer their solutions to others, rather than individual companies building their own bespoke systems.

This raises interesting questions about the future of enterprise software and the role of AI in shaping this landscape. As Klarna prepares to go public, its approach to customer data management and AI adoption will be closely watched by industry observers and investors alike.

The implications of Klarna's decision extend beyond the fintech sector, with potential ripple effects on the broader enterprise software market. As the company's confidential financial information is set to be made public soon, the industry will be keenly watching for insights into its AI-centric strategy and its potential for widespread adoption.

In conclusion, Siemiatkowski's clarification on Klarna's decision to replace Salesforce CRM with its own AI system provides valuable context on the company's approach to customer data management and AI adoption. While he doubts widespread adoption of similar strategies, his prediction of SaaS industry consolidation raises important questions about the future of enterprise software.