Key takeaways
- CEO of Swedish fintech company Klarna, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television that he believes the world isn’t ready for the impact AI is going to have on the job market.
- Klarna and Siemiatkowski have been champions of the technology for a long time and have consistently outlined its benefits.
- While AI has certainly caused changes for entry-level candidates, it might not be ready to take over the market just yet.
Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski has said that the world isn’t ready for the disruption that AI is going to cause on the job market, particularly for knowledge workers.
Siemiatkowski and Klarna have long been loyal to the technology and the companies furthering it, saying in 2023 that they would be OpenAI’s “favorite guinea pig.”
AI has already had an impact on the job market, particularly for entry-level workers. However, it’s uncertain on how quickly we’ll see AI take over the entire market.
Klarna CEO: World Isn’t Ready for AI Job Shock
CEO of buy-now, pay-later company Klarna, Sebastian Siemiatkowski has said that the world isn’t ready for the consequences AI will bring to the job market. Particularly, as the technology looks to cause a “massive shift” with knowledge work.
Siemiatkowski said, during an interview with Bloomberg Television, “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.”
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While he did say that new jobs will be created as a result of AI, he identified this as a long term solution, whereas society now needs to focus on creating short term ones as people lose their jobs.
Klarna Has Proven Its AI Allegiance
In 2023, Siemiatkowski declared that he wanted to be AI company OpenAI’s “favorite guinea pig.” On top of this, Klarna has already invested significantly in AI, and Siemiatkowksi continues to be a strong supporter of the tech:
“You can build a lot of trust by having AI perform specific types of task because of the consistency and quality.” – Klarna CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski
Implementing AI hasn’t always gone well for Klarna, however. Back in May, the company reversed a decision to replace 700 customer service workers with AI, only to rehire once again due to reports of customer dissatisfaction and poor quality support.
That hasn’t stopped Siemiatkowski championing AI. In the interview with Bloomberg, he said he’d been trialing out vibe coding, claiming that: “People should not be afraid of technology.”
What’s The Current State of Jobs in the Wake of AI?
Notable companies have been making way for AI in the workplace, and we’ve been documenting it for quite some time.
At the moment, it seems those suffering the most are entry-level candidates, with one August 2025 study from Stanford economists finding that in fields where AI can replace roles, entry-level employment has dropped by 13% in the past three years for those aged 22-25. PwC also recently announced plans to dramatically cut the number of graduates it will be recruiting in the next year, due to AI.
Although, it’s unclear if any of these replacements are paying off. While some companies are seeing return-on-investment with AI spending so far, experiments that have fully replaced workers with AI haven’t gone to plan. So, it might be a while before we’re in a state of serious consequence like Siemiatkowski says, but he’s absolutely right that we should prepare for it.
