I saw an article in the NY Times recently that blew my mind. I am amazed it has not gotten more attention. The headline asked: Why is the CEO Bragging about AI Replacing Humans? The article, by Noam Scheiber, says:
“Over the past year, Klarna and [CEO Sebastian] Siemiatkowski have repeatedly talked up the amount of work they have automated using generative A.I… Mr. Siemiatkowski said that A.I. had allowed his company to largely stop hiring entirely as of September 2023, which he said reduced its overall head count to under 4,000 from about 5,000. He said he expected Klarna’s work force to eventually fall to about 2,000 as a result of its A.I. adoption.”
There were several reasons I found this interesting.
First, Swedes, like other Scandinavians tend not to be attention-seekers. I know this because we have helped many companies from the Nordics launch campaigns in the US. It turns out the CEO is not a Swede, and Klarna is not your average Swedish company.
The NY Times story didn’t definitively answer the question posed by the headline, as Siemiatkowski declined an interview, but Noam suggested that it was a play for investors in advance of an IPO. Plus, Siemiatkowski has always apparently tried to position the company as more like Silicon Valley high-flyer than a Swedish firm. Finally, it seems he’s willing to take the heat on this issue. The article says:
“Mr. Siemiatkowski has brought clarity to this discussion. In his eagerness to court investors, and in his tendency to overstate the case and say the quiet part out loud, he has laid bare Silicon Valley’s ambition. In his own slightly muddled way, for his own slightly idiosyncratic reasons, he is helping to surface a conversation that has largely been whispered in the executive suites.”
This is a message that investors love, as massive cost savings are one way to make AI bets pay off. At any rate, it seems clear that it is an attention ploy – but is it a good one?
Tech PR Masterclass?
I read an amusing post by Jared Blank, a “Reformed (reforming?) SaaS chief marketing guy.” according to his substack profile.It’s title: A Tech PR Masterclass from Klarna
First, I love his writing and think we would get along great. He ties his ideas together using references I easily related to: the ’70s band Mott the Hoople, DC radio shock jock Greaseman, and the Brady Brunch show.
His post asked: “Why is Klarna’s CEO constantly talking about using AI to cut costs and fire people?” It sniffed around some theories, landing on: “What if this was actually a truly brilliant PR strategy? Last week I quoted someone saying, “Shamelessness is the most durable moat.” Glomming onto a trend, and then making outrageous claims about it is the foundation of a great PR strategy.”
Apparently shamelessness is the answer, and I guess that syncs with the cliché that there’s no such thing as bad publicity. I disagree. While he shares a couple of examples where the ploy worked (and just might for Klarna, if soothing investors and supporting an IPO were the only goals). I can cite many more “crash and burn” examples (Martin Shkreli, the pharma bro, or Dan Price of Gravity Payments, anyone)?
CEO likability does matter, just read my post and follow the fine work of branding and reputation analytics firm Caliber. You can win the PR strategy battle but lose the war, Jared.
And What About all that AI-driven Marketing and Comms Cost Savings?
Finally, I was selfishly interested in exactly how Klaran cut or contained marketing and PR costs with AI. Many in these fields are nervously looking over their shoulders, in fear of an AI-driven career disruption. Is this happening sooner than we had hoped, with one company unafraid to go on record?
I queried Perplexity, which in turn pointed me to several helpful articles. Some of the examples were obvious, e.g. using AI to assist with image generation. Graphic artists and stock image firms should be scared, very scared.
There wasn’t a lot of info I could find that’s more directly related to communications and PR tasks. An article in Martech by Taylor Peterson said: “On the copywriting front, Klarna’s proprietary “Copy Assistant” AI handles around 80% of marketing copy tasks, ensuring consistent brand voice and messaging at a fraction of traditional costs.
Well, that’s getting closer to PR – but, judging from the Klarna example, we are not yet at the stage of PR AI agents piching media AI agents.
