Sebastian Siemiatkowski, the CEO of the “buy now, pay later” financing firm Klarna, has provided insights into his assertion that AI has the capability to replace “all” jobs — including his own.
In a post on X this past Sunday, Siemiatkowski elaborated on his viewpoint that “AI can already do all our jobs,” a statement he made the previous month that he acknowledged “generated significant discussion.”
He noted that while AI requires further research and development to fully replicate every job, it possesses immense potential to achieve this in the future.
Siemiatkowski compared this situation to centuries ago when human intellect had the capability to conceive of cars, computers, and rockets, but it required many more years of innovation to gather the necessary resources to actually construct a computer.
Similarly, he stated that AI is now “capable of performing all our jobs, including my own.” He highlighted that “Our work essentially involves reasoning paired with knowledge and experience.”
Siemiatkowski recognized that “the precise way in which we will combine the essential elements of reasoning and knowledge to mimic the work we do today has yet to be fully resolved.”
I understand that my comments on “AI can already do all our jobs” caused quite a stir.
So allow me to clarify and expand on what I mean.
In my view, the major leap forward in AI is achieving a computer with “reasoning” abilities. This has essentially already been accomplished.
Not if you present AI…
— Sebastian Siemiatkowski (@klarnaseb) January 6, 2025
Siemiatkowski also mentioned that he doesn’t expect it will take centuries for AI to assume roles traditionally held by humans, but he indicated that the rapid emergence of AI technologies in his own job is a “bleak” prospect.
“I’m not particularly thrilled about this,” he expressed. “But I also think we need to be truthful about what we anticipate will unfold.”
Klarna asserted in February that its AI customer service assistant achieved the workload equivalent to 700 human agents. In December, the company employed an AI replica of Siemiatkowski to announce its recent financial results.
Klarna has maintained a hiring freeze for over a year as the organization works to complement human efforts through AI. Siemiatkowski informed Bloomberg last month that more than 1,000 employees departed Klarna since the freeze commenced, resulting in a workforce of 3,500.
As Klarna’s salary expenditures decrease, the company has communicated to its staff that “part of the benefits from this will be reflected” in their salaries.
As of October, Klarna was valued at $14.6 billion.
