Klarna’s CEO apparently struck a chord on social media with a post explaining how the company saved millions by using AI to cut costs and do marketing work that human employees used to do.
Sebastian Siemiatkowski tweeted Tuesday that the fintech company would save $10 million this year, in part because generative AI allows the company to produce more images faster — and with a much in-house marketing team smaller.
“We spend less on photographers, image banks and marketing agencies,” he says. wrote. “Our internal marketing team is HALF the size of last year, but they’re producing MORE! »
THE buy now, pay later The company also cut spending on external marketing agencies by 25% and “removed the need for stock images” by instead using AI image generators such as Midjourney, OpenAI’s DALL-E and Adobe’s Firefly, Siemiatkowski added.
He also wondered aloud about the impact AI will have on the creative industries and those working in marketing.
“But it makes me think: what will happen to the extremely talented marketing and creative industries?” he added. “There is of course still a need for super awesome, super creative massive campaigns, but much of the day-to-day work of creative businesses can be done much faster, easier and at a fraction of the cost thanks to AI.”
His remarks quickly sparked backlash. Some commenters responded to his tweet, insulting him and saying that his remarks were “macabre.”
The largely negative response on social media to the CEO’s post highlights the tension and concerns many workers share about how companies are implementing AI into employees’ daily workflow in an effort to increase productivity and reduce costs – and the impact this has on social media. may have on labor.
“If you had an even bigger marketing team, they probably would have advised you not to post this,” one person said. said.
“Creating that you laid off half your marketing team is just really bad,” said another addednext to a clown emoji.
Klarna laid off around 700 workers, or around 10% of its workforce, in May 2022. The following year, the company recorded its first profitable quarter in four years. Its workforce fell about 23% at the end of 2023, according to company filings.
When contacted for comment, a Klarna spokesperson said: “We believe it is important to highlight the impact of AI and show real-world examples and data to lead a proactive discussion . »
Other commenters commented that the AI-generated images looked bad in their opinion, with one saying they “It looked like shit.” Siemiatkowski included an image in his tweet showing a curler in a bouquet of flowers.
Although online responses to the CEO seemed mostly negative, they weren’t all negative.
“Creative industries will be able to take it to the next level. Instead of having a creative suite, they will have entire production studios at their fingertips,” one person said. wrote. “Impressive results from the Klarna team!”
Klarna has been moving towards AI for a while now
Siemiatkowski tweeted in February about Klarna’s AI assistantpowered by OpenAI, claiming that by handling customer service requests it was doing “the equivalent of the work of 700 full-time agents.”
“In the longer term, as more companies adopt these technologies, we believe society needs to consider the impact. While this may be a positive impact for society as a whole, we need to consider the implications for the individuals affected,” he said. said at the time.
In a interview According to the Wall Street Journal published Wednesday, Klarna Chief Marketing Officer David Sandstrom said the company needs to be “brutally efficient” in order to “become the most advanced marketing organization there is.”
“What we’re going to see is that we can do a lot more with lower costs, or if we decide to increase costs again, which I think we will, we’ll be even more efficient,” he said. he declared.
“At a marketing level, we as an industry need to recognize the fact that whether we like it or not, whether or not creatives and artisans are worried about their future – which they shouldn’t be , in my opinion – we are in a difficult situation we are in the middle of a radical change for marketing and the marketing industry,” added the Klarna CMO.
In a Press release released on Tuesday alongside the CEO’s social media post, Klarna said it had “generated more than 1,000 images in the first three months of 2024 using genAI, reducing the image development cycle by 6 weeks to just 7 days.
Klarna also said its AI assistant is now used for 80% of all writing within the company.
