This fintech company hasn't hired new staff in 1 year. CEO says AI can now perform all tasks

Sebastian Siemiatkowski is the co-founder and CEO of fintech company Klarna that offers consumers 'buy now, pay later' options. (Image credit: Klarna)

Fintech company Klarna has not been actively hiring employees for over a year as its CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski leans towards making artificial intelligence (AI) tools do the work instead. In an interview with Bloomberg, the head of the Stockholm-headquartered company that offers consumers "buy now, pay later" options said he was "of the opinion that AI can already do all of the jobs that we as humans do. It's just a question of how we apply it and use it," Siemiatkowski said.

He added that Klarna -- which also has offices in the US -- stopped hiring in 2023. The company now has about 200 people using AI for their core work.

"I think what we've done internally hasn't been reported as widely. We stopped hiring about a year ago, so we were 4,500, and now we're 3,500," the CEO told Bloomberg. "We have a natural attrition like every tech company. People stay about five years, so 20 percent leave every year. By not hiring, we're simply shrinking, right?"

But while the use of AI tools has triggered fears among employees across the world, Siemiatkowski said that his company assuaged fears by telling employees that "what's going to happen is the total salary cost of Klarna is going to shrink, but part of the gain of that is going to be seen in your paycheck."

Though the company has advertised open positions on its website, a spokesperson told Business Insider that Klarna wasn't "actively recruiting" to expand its workforce but is backfilling "some essential roles," primarily in engineering.