How Klarna’s AI assistant is revolutionizing customer service

Klarna, the Swedish fintech company that offers buy now, pay later services, has recently launched its AI assistant powered by OpenAI. The AI assistant is available in the Klarna app and is designed to enhance the shopping and payment experience for Klarna’s 150 million consumers worldwide¹. In this blog post, we will explore how Klarna’s AI assistant is revolutionizing customer service by using cutting-edge natural language processing technology.

What can Klarna’s AI assistant do?

Klarna’s AI assistant is capable of managing a range of tasks from multilingual customer service to managing refunds and returns, and fostering healthy financial habits. Some of the key features of the AI assistant are:

A 24/7 customer service expert: Klarna’s AI assistant is a dependable, always-available resource for all customer service needs. It proficiently handles a wide array of queries, including refunds, returns, payment-related issues, cancellations, disputes, and invoice inaccuracies, ensuring swift and effective solutions.
Your personal financial assistant: Klarna’s AI assistant offers real-time updates on your outstanding balances and upcoming payment schedules, ensuring you never miss a Klarna payment. It also provides personalized tips and insights on how to manage your finances better and avoid unnecessary fees or interest.
A multilingual communicator: Klarna’s AI assistant can communicate in more than 35 languages, making it accessible and convenient for customers across 23 markets. It can also detect and switch languages automatically based on the customer’s input, ensuring a smooth and seamless conversation.

How does Klarna’s AI assistant work?

Klarna’s AI assistant is powered by OpenAI, a research organization that aims to create artificial intelligence that can benefit humanity without being constrained by profit or corporate agendas². Klarna has partnered with OpenAI to integrate its ChatGPT technology, which is a state-of-the-art natural language processing model that can generate coherent and fluent text based on a given context³.

ChatGPT is trained on a large corpus of text from the internet, including social media, news articles, blogs, and books. It uses a deep neural network architecture called Transformer, which can learn the complex patterns and relationships between words and sentences. ChatGPT can also generate text in different styles, tones, and domains, depending on the input and the desired output³.

Klarna has customized ChatGPT to suit its specific needs and goals. It has fine-tuned the model on its own data, such as customer service transcripts, FAQs, and policies. It has also added additional features and functionalities, such as error handling, fallback mechanisms, and human escalation. Klarna’s AI assistant is constantly learning and improving from the feedback and ratings it receives from customers and human agents¹.

What are the benefits of Klarna’s AI assistant?

Klarna’s AI assistant has proven to be a game-changer for both customers and the company. According to Klarna, the AI assistant has achieved the following results in its first month of operation¹:

It has had 2.3 million conversations, two-thirds of Klarna’s customer service chats
It is doing the equivalent work of 700 full-time agents
It is on par with human agents in regard to customer satisfaction score
It is more accurate in errand resolution, leading to a 25% drop in repeat inquiries
Customers now resolve their errands in less than 2 mins compared to 11 mins previously
It’s estimated to drive a $40 million USD in profit improvement to Klarna in 2024

Klarna’s AI assistant has also seen massive improvement in communication with local immigrant and expat communities across all its markets thanks to the language support. Additionally, customers can still choose to interact with live agents if they’d prefer¹.

What are the challenges and opportunities of Klarna’s AI assistant?

Klarna’s AI assistant is not without its challenges and limitations. As with any AI system, it is not perfect and can make mistakes or misunderstandings. It may also encounter situations or queries that are beyond its scope or capability. Klarna has addressed these issues by implementing robust quality assurance and monitoring processes, as well as providing clear and transparent information to customers about the nature and purpose of the AI assistant¹.

Klarna’s AI assistant also faces ethical and social implications, such as the impact on human employment, privacy, and trust. Klarna has acknowledged these concerns and has committed to being responsible and ethical in its use and development of AI. Klarna has also emphasized the importance of collaboration and dialogue with society and policymakers to ensure a considerate, informed, and steady stewardship of AI¹.

Klarna’s AI assistant is not a static or final product, but a dynamic and evolving one. Klarna has a vision of a fully AI-powered financial assistant that can save customers time, worry, and money, while making the global retail banking industry more efficient and consumer-focused. Klarna has already announced some exciting new features that will be added to the AI assistant soon, such as voice and video capabilities, personalized recommendations, and social shopping¹.

Conclusion

Klarna’s AI assistant is a revolutionary innovation that leverages OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology to provide a seamless and personalized customer service experience. It can handle a variety of tasks, from managing refunds and returns, to offering financial advice and tips, to communicating in multiple languages. It has also achieved impressive results in terms of customer satisfaction, errand resolution, and profit improvement. Klarna’s AI assistant is not without its challenges and limitations, but it is constantly learning and improving from feedback and data. Klarna has a vision of a fully AI-powered financial assistant that can transform the global retail banking industry and empower consumers to shop smarter and safer.

features of Klarna’s AI Assistant?

Some of the features of Klarna’s AI assistant are⁴⁵:

It can handle a wide range of customer service queries, such as refunds, returns, payment issues, cancellations, disputes, and invoice inaccuracies.
It can offer real-time updates on outstanding balances and payment schedules, as well as personalized tips and insights on financial management.
It can communicate in more than 35 languages and switch languages automatically based on the customer’s input.
It can learn and improve from feedback and ratings from customers and human agents.
It is available 24/7 in the Klarna app and can do the equivalent work of 700 full-time agents.

(1) Klarna AI assistant handles two-thirds of customer service chats in its …. https://www.klarna.com/international/press/klarna-ai-assistant-handles-two-thirds-of-customer-service-chats-in-its-first-month/.
(2) Klarna AI Assistant Handles Two-Thirds of Customer Service Chats in Its …. https://financialit.net/news/artificial-intelligence/klarna-ai-assistant-handles-two-thirds-customer-service-chats-its-first.
(3) Klarna AI Assistant Handles Two-Thirds of Customer Service Chats in Its First Month. https://financialit.net/news/payments/klarna-ai-assistant-handles-two-thirds-customer-service-chats-its-first-month.
(4) Klarna unveils AI Assistant powered by OpenAI; carries workload of 700 full-time agents. https://siliconcanals.com/news/startups/lifestyle/klarna-unveils-ai-assistant/.
(5) Klarna Bank AB (publ): Klarna AI assistant handles two-thirds of customer service chats in its first month. https://www.finanznachrichten.de/nachrichten-2024-02/61521616-klarna-bank-ab-publ-klarna-ai-assistant-handles-two-thirds-of-customer-service-chats-in-its-first-month-008.htm.

Voice and video capabilities: Klarna’s AI assistant will be able to interact with customers through voice and video calls, making the communication more natural and engaging.
Personalized recommendations: Klarna’s AI assistant will be able to offer personalized suggestions and offers based on the customer’s preferences, behavior, and history, helping them discover new products and services that suit their needs and budget.
Social shopping: Klarna’s AI assistant will be able to facilitate social shopping experiences, such as group payments, wish lists, and reviews, allowing customers to share and enjoy their shopping with their friends and family.

Klarna’s AI assistant is not a static or final product, but a dynamic and evolving one. Klarna is constantly learning and improving from feedback and data, as well as collaborating with OpenAI and other partners to leverage the latest advancements in AI technology. Klarna’s AI assistant aims to revolutionize customer service and financial management, and empower consumers to shop smarter and safer.

How can I access Klarna’s AI assistant?

You can access Klarna’s AI assistant through the Klarna app, which is available for iOS and Android devices. The AI assistant is integrated into the app and can be accessed by tapping on the chat icon at the bottom of the screen. You can then type or speak your query and the AI assistant will respond accordingly. You can also switch languages by tapping on the globe icon at the top of the chat screen¹..

(1) Klarna AI assistant handles two-thirds of customer service chats in its …. https://www.klarna.com/international/press/klarna-ai-assistant-handles-two-thirds-of-customer-service-chats-in-its-first-month/.
(2) Klarna unveils AI Assistant powered by OpenAI; carries workload of 700 …. https://siliconcanals.com/news/startups/lifestyle/klarna-unveils-ai-assistant/.https://siliconcanals.com/news/startups/lifestyle/klarna-unveils-ai-assistant/
(3) Klarna AI Assistant Handles Two-Thirds of Customer Service Chats in Its …. https://financialit.net/news/artificial-intelligence/klarna-ai-assistant-handles-two-thirds-customer-service-chats-its-first.
(4) Klarna AI assistant handles two-thirds of customer service chats in its …. https://bestofai.com/article/klarna-ai-assistant-handles-two-thirds-of-customer-service-chats-in-its-first-month.

what is the benefits of Klarna’s AI Assistant

Some of the benefits of Klarna’s AI assistant are:

It provides a 24/7 customer service expert that can handle a wide range of queries, such as refunds, returns, payment issues, cancellations, and disputes, ensuring swift and effective solutions¹²³.
It offers real-time updates on outstanding balances and payment schedules, as well as personalized tips and insights on financial management¹²³.
It communicates in more than 35 languages and switches languages automatically based on the customer’s input¹²³.
It learns and improves from feedback and ratings from customers and human agents¹²³.
It does the equivalent work of 700 full-time agents and is estimated to drive a $40 million USD in profit improvement to Klarna in 2024¹²³.

(1) Around a year after its mass layoffs, Klarna says its AI assistant has successfully replaced 700 people. https://techstory.in/around-a-year-after-its-mass-layoffs-klarna-says-its-ai-assistant-has-successfully-replaced-700-people/.
(2) Klarna AI assistant handles two-thirds of customer service chats in its first month. https://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2024/02/27/9968934.htm.https://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2024/02/27/9968934.htm
(3) Klarna Bank AB (publ): Klarna AI assistant handles two-thirds of customer service chats in its first month. https://www.finanznachrichten.de/nachrichten-2024-02/61521616-klarna-bank-ab-publ-klarna-ai-assistant-handles-two-thirds-of-customer-service-chats-in-its-first-month-008.htm.
(4) Klarna AI assistant handles two-thirds of customer service chats in its …. https://www.klarna.com/international/press/klarna-ai-assistant-handles-two-thirds-of-customer-service-chats-in-its-first-month/.
(5) Klarna Says Its AI Assistant Does the Work of 700 People – Entrepreneur. https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/klarna-says-its-ai-assistant-does-the-work-of-700-people/470405.

Klarna’s AI Assistants 2024