Klarna is freezing hiring and turning to AI tools such as ChatGPT to pick up the slack

• Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski says the company is in a partial hiring freeze.
• Siemiatkowski said the change was due to the potential of AI-powered tools such as ChatGPT.

Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski has said the Swedish fintech is no longer hiring new staff beyond its engineering department.

Siemiatkowski said the change was due to the use of AI-powered tools such as ChatGPT and their potential productivity gains, The Telegraph reported. He told the news outlet that AI was "a threat to a lot of jobs" across the economy.

"There will be a shrinking of the company," Siemiatkowski said, per The Telegraph. "We're not currently hiring at all, apart from engineers."

The Klarna chief added he did not plan to lay off workers but natural attrition meant the company would shrink over time, with AI picking up the slack from lost staffers.

The buy now, pay later platform laid off around 10% of staff last May, with Siemiatkowski opting to use a pre-recorded message to inform employees at the time.

Representatives for Klarna declined to comment on the report.

As more AI productivity tools hit the market, some workers are concerned that widespread adoption of the tech could put their jobs at risk. Freelancers, for example, say they are already losing out on work to ChatGPT-like tools.

AI-powered tools have been shown to boost workers' productivity when it comes to certain tasks, especially when they are admin-heavy, opening up opportunities for company cost-saving.

Some CEOs have already bet that AI tools will boost worker productivity and lead to reduced headcount.

Other companies including AT&T have even created their own AI tools to help employees with their work. AT&T's OpenAI-backed tool is aimed at coders and software developers.