Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski recently made headlines by claiming that his company has essentially stopped hiring a year ago, thanks to the power of generative AI. In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Siemiatkowski stated that Klarna's workforce has shrunk from 4,500 to 3,500, attributing this reduction to natural attrition and the efficiency of AI. However, a closer look at the company's job listings and statements from its managers paints a more nuanced picture.

Despite Siemiatkowski's bullishness on AI, Klarna is not entirely relying on AI to replace human workers who leave. The company's website currently lists over 50 open job positions globally, and managers have mentioned actively hiring or growing their teams at least half a dozen times throughout 2024. Furthermore, Klarna has hired new employees in the last year to fill roles on its policy, software engineering, and global partnerships teams.

Siemiatkowski's comments about AI's capabilities have been met with skepticism in the past. He previously claimed that ChatGPT was doing the work of 700 human employees and that Klarna was dropping Salesforce as a CRM provider in favor of AI, a statement that Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff questioned. Just this week, Siemiatkowski created an AI deepfake of himself to report financial results, attempting to demonstrate that even a CEO can be replaced by AI.

However, Klarna's global press lead, John Craske, clarified that Siemiatkowski's comments about hiring were "simplifying for brevity in a broadcast interview." Craske explained that while Klarna was hiring between 1,000 to 1,500 people per year from 2019 to 2022, the company is now only backfilling essential roles, predominantly in engineering. This suggests that Klarna is not entirely relying on AI to replace human workers, but rather using AI to augment its workforce.

The context behind Klarna's hiring slowdown is also important to consider. Like many tech companies, Klarna was hiring aggressively during the pandemic, and has since reduced its workforce to pre-pandemic levels. This trend is seen across the industry, with companies like Meta and Amazon also slowing down hiring or implementing layoffs.

It's also possible that Siemiatkowski's comments are motivated by Klarna's upcoming IPO. By emphasizing the company's adoption of generative AI, Siemiatkowski may be trying to convince investors that Klarna is at the forefront of AI innovation and that the benefits are already being realized.

While AI may be helping Klarna do more with fewer people, the reality is that AI adoption and implementation are happening at a much slower rate across the industry. Klarna's story serves as a reminder to separate fact from fiction when it comes to AI's capabilities and to consider the broader context behind companies' claims about AI-driven workforce reductions.