Real of Fake? Why Klarna CEO Uses an AI Clone

How many leaders want to dodge a tough conversation about quarterly numbers?

Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of buy-now-pay-later giant Klarna, may have found a cheeky workaround: send an AI avatar.

In a short YouTube video revealing Q1 2025 highlights, the stand-in comes clean right away, saying: “It’s me, or rather my AI avatar, here to share Klarna’s Q1 2025 highlights.”

The gimmick is fun, but the signal for finance leaders is serious. Klarna is using AI not just as a product feature but as an operating model, claiming both growth and efficiency gains at scale.

The topline reads well for any CFO: 100 million active consumers - its fastest growth in two years - plus a fourth straight profitable quarter.

Revenue rose 15% year-on-year, with the US driving 33% of that growth. If you’re benchmarking AI’s impact on P&L, Klarna is positioning the technology as a material lever, not a pilot.

AI as the margin and productivity engine

The avatar lays out the thesis: “AI is helping us work faster, scale faster and deliver more value. From customer support and marketing to insights and product development, we’re now on track to hit US$1m per employee – very cool.

“One hundred million consumers, profit and growth. AI is the engine driving it all.”

Behind the bravado sit decisions any finance chief will recognise. Since 2022, Klarna has streamlined its workforce by roughly 40% while shifting its mix toward technologists - tech employees rose from 36% in 2022 to 52% in Q1 2025.

Internally, 96% of employees use AI daily, a change management feat that correlates with a 152% increase in revenue per employee since Q1 2023.

On the customer side, the company says costs per transaction are down 40% since Q1 2023 while maintaining satisfaction levels.

For CFOs, that’s the trifecta: volume, margin and experience moving in the right direction.

Reshaping the cost base and the org chart

Klarna’s message is that AI is now woven into the fabric of the business: support, marketing, product, analytics.

That shows up in the unit economics and in the org design: fewer people, more technologists, and an assertive push to automate knowledge work.

This is the finance playbook many are chasing - rebuild the cost base around digital leverage while expanding capacity without linear headcount growth.

Sebastian has been explicit, even provocative, about the implications. In December 2024 he told Bloomberg: “AI can already do all of the jobs that we as humans do”.

In January 2025 he wrote on X: “So to me AI is capable of doing all our jobs, my own included. Because our work is simply reasoning combined with knowledge/experience. And the most critical breakthrough, reasoning, is behind us.

“Exactly how long it will take for the world to figure this out, who knows for sure? But I think we can all agree it is not in the 100s of years…”

Leadership in the era of ‘vibe coding’

Sebastian is also a vocal advocate for “vibe coding”, using AI as an informal, interactive coding partner to speed from idea to prototype.

He told the Sourcery podcast that this is now how he tests product concepts himself: “Rather than disrupting my poor engineers and product people with what is half good ideas and half bad ideas, now I test it myself."

For finance leaders, this is a cultural tell: decision-makers are collapsing cycle times and reducing coordination costs with AI-augmented experimentation.

That has implications for capital allocation, governance and risk, particularly in terms of how budgets and guardrails must keep up with the pace of iteration.

The labour market message is starker. Most recently, he warned that AI could eliminate many knowledge-based jobs, including in banking and finance.

“I feel a lot of my tech bros are being slightly, you know, not to the point on this topic. I think there is a massive shift coming to knowledge work. And it’s not just in banking, it’s in society at large,” he told Bloomberg Television.

“Society will have to figure out what are we going to do because yes, new jobs will be created, but in the shorter term, that doesn’t help the Brussels translator. He’s not going to become a YouTube influencer tomorrow.”

For CFOs, the takeaway is clear. Treat AI as a core driver of revenue per employee, unit cost and speed - not a side project.

Build the workforce and operating controls to match and be ready to lead the people strategy as aggressively as the P&L.