Klarna's AI assistant does the work of 700 full-time agents

Klarna, the AI powered global payments network and shopping assistant, is on a mission to transform the way millions of people around the world shop and pay. When ChatGPT launched in November 2022, Klarna Co-founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski immediately saw the potential. Klarna became the first European company and the first fintech firm globally to launch a ChatGPT plugin⁠—which was just the beginning.

“We push everyone to test, test, test and explore,” said Siemiatkowski. “As Klarna continues to discover applications for OpenAI’s tech, there’s the potential to take the business to new heights. We’re aimed at achieving a new level of employee empowerment, enhancing both our team’s performance and the customer experience.”

Anyone who’s shopped online knows that it can be frustrating and exhausting. If you’re shopping for sneakers, for example, you have to search through thousands of similar products to find one with the characteristics you want. Then you need to compare prices across a vast array of online stores. Instead, imagine being able to ask an AI tool to give you sneaker recommendations for under $150—and being able to refine your search through a conversational interface. This is the vision behind Klarna’s shopping plugin for ChatGPT. When a ChatGPT user has the GPT installed, a customer can have a conversation about an item they’re looking for and get suggestions from ChatGPT, with product links pointing to Klarna’s search & compare tool for price comparison. “The capabilities of AI technology are not only addressing existing challenges, but also rapidly advancing how we can enhance the consumer experience for the near future,” said Martin Elwin, Senior Director of Engineering at Klarna.