Klarna was the company that went all-on replacing customer support with an AI bot and went on to brag about the cost savings. Now they are reversing course. Easy to see more companies blindly replacing quality customer support with a worse AI implementation will follow... - ThreadSky

gergely.pragmaticengineer.com • 4 days ago

Klarna was the company that went all-on replacing customer support with an AI bot and went on to brag about the cost savings.

Now they are reversing course.

Easy to see more companies blindly replacing quality customer support with a worse AI implementation will follow...

Comments

jsrowe.com•3 days ago

My hot take is that human service becomes a competitive advantage. Just like I'm willing to pay to avoid ads. I'm willing to have a human solve my problems.

andrewdsweet.bsky.social•4 days ago

I once sold software to Klarna. I’ve never worked with a more arrogant company in my career. The whole time I just kept remembering it was buy now pay later but they acted like they invented the internet because of an insane $40 BIl valuation.

lalitdhalia.com•4 days ago

Lol

a-blueberry-cake.bsky.social•4 days ago

5 years ago i had such an emcounter with an AI bot on AliExpress

Havent bought anything there since.

svelmoe.dk•4 days ago

I can't recall once an "AI" bot has managed to solve my problems, without having it escalated to a human, other than possible me giving up dealing with said company - which I guess could be a solution to my problem.

permadeath.com•4 days ago

thinking about how Microsoft is currently running ads (in my office's elevator lol) pitching a *150%* increase from GenAI

sunanda.bsky.social•4 days ago

When klarna announced this I wondered how long it would take for them to reverse course lol I'm not sage but this one was pretty freaking obvious...

jamesdallen.me•4 days ago

I would go further and say that companies that allow their support staff to make human decisions and not read off a script will do better- if I had a nickel for every frustrating interaction I’ve had with someone that clearly was not allowed to think on their own

justinpoliachik.com•4 days ago

Honestly props to them for reversing course

alexkates.dev•4 days ago

And the pendulum swings back

gergely.pragmaticengineer.com•4 days ago

Back when Twitter was full of influencers declaring the end of customer support thanks to Klarna I did something few people did:

Signed up for Klarna, bought an item, and used the bot.

I was NOT impressed. At all.

Called that this was... very basic. https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/klarnas-ai-chatbot/

estebanwilliams.bsky.social•4 days ago

the company paid $19,000 per agent annually, on average

gergely.pragmaticengineer.com•4 days ago

A year ago I wrote this, and I still stand by it.

You probably don't need an AI bot when you think you actually need an AI bot...

https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/klarnas-ai-chatbot/

mjbellantoni.bsky.social•4 days ago

I'm currently in the very early stages of building an "AI bot" and the deeper I get into it, the less "AI" I think might be involved.

gergely.pragmaticengineer.com•4 days ago

My take on Klarna, by the way:

It's a company that is making (very sensible!) cost cutting. It's dressing up savings as if they were enabled by AI.

But they should have been done, without AI, likely before.

Their competitors do the same FWIW

https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-pulse-106

nyblom.io•4 days ago

Yes. Spoke with a dev about to leave Klarna with a severence package today. Allegedly, they have started letting experience developers go now to save on costs before the IPO.

gergely.pragmaticengineer.com•4 days ago

The company I talked about in my rant about terrible customer support since AI bots was not Klarna.

But food for thought: the below company saw revenue REDUCE since introducing their AI chatbot (their annual report came out recently).

Connected? Maybe

https://bsky.app/profile/gergely.pragmaticengineer.com/post/3lihcodzur22p

gergely.pragmaticengineer.com•4 days ago

In some ways, it is comforting that Klarna is learning the exact same lesson Citibank did in 2008, when they also automated L1 support... and pissed off their highest-value customers, and then quickly reversed course

Some things don't change I guess?

https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-pulse-83

billkarwin.geek.org•4 days ago

What doesn't change:

The CEO doesn't see Customer Service as part of the company's value.

The CEO gives the head of CS a goal to cut costs.

The CEO does not qualify that with "and keep the same level of quality."

If the head of CS can't comply, then the CEO replaces them with someone who will.

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply