Klarna CEO predicts it will have 1,000 fewer jobs by 2030

According to CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Klarna's next phase of leadership will largely be shaped by developments in AI. He expects the company’s headcount to fall from 3,000 to 2,000 by 2030 as artificial intelligence scales across operations, following a reduction from 7,000 to 3,000 through job cuts and natural attrition.

Speaking on the V2C podcast, Sebastian said: “I want to be honest about the fact that I do think there's going to be a very big shift.”

“I'm an optimist at heart, but I also want to be a realist around what's going to happen in the shorter term, and it's going to be a lot of turmoil in this”.

Embedding AI across the business

Klarna’s AI push is already reshaping performance and the roles around it. Q3 2025 earnings reached US$903m, up 28% year on year, with AI embedded across global teams to drive efficiency. An AI assistant now handles two thirds of customer service chats, cutting average resolution times from 11 minutes to under two.

The company has rolled also out Kiki, a generative AI assistant that helps employees evaluate document sentiment and draft common contracts. Klarna trained staff to work with the technology and shifted hiring to prioritise AI-ready talent – 96% of its workforce now uses AI for tasks.

Klarna links AI adoption to a 152% increase in revenue per employee since Q1 2023.

As productivity rises, Klarna is easing off on recruitment. Sebastian said that while Klarna “hire[s] somebody here and there”, if you “go to LinkedIn and look at the insights, you’re going to see how the company is shrinking”.

The role of AI in the changing workforce

As automation expands, the question is where human contribution remains decisive. According to Sebastian, the jobs that will stay are those where “it’s going to be vital to offer a human connection”.

While AI absorbs repetitive tasks, roles that are grounded in empathy, trust and relationship building are likely to be prioritised as roles evolve.

But Sebastian is not the only leader expecting swift change.

Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, told the Financial Times that he believes white collar roles will be automated by AI within a year and a half. Mustafa said: “White-collar work, where you're sitting down at a computer, either being a lawyer or an accountant or a project manager or a marketing person – most of those tasks will be fully automated by an AI within the next 12 to 18 months”.

Others are hedging by expanding entry level pipelines alongside AI adoption. Nickle LaMoreaux, Chief Human Resources Officer of IBM, said the company plans to triple its US-based entry level workforce across 2026 as it advances AI.

Arvind Krishna, CEO at IBM, told the Wall Street Journal: “While we have done a huge amount of work inside IBM on leveraging AI and automation on certain enterprise workflows, our total employment has actually gone up, because what it does is it gives you more investment to put into other areas.”