Klarna cuts spend by $10 million a year with AI

Payments solution platform Klarna claims to have cut spending by 11% in the first quarter of this year thanks to artificial intelligence.

The fintech firm said its use of the technology had led to around 40% of cost savings, worth around $10 million annually, despite increasing the number of campaigns it has ran in Q1.

Klarna’s implementation of GenAI has helped it decrease spend on external marketing suppliers by 25% across translation, production and social agencies, accounting for $4 million of savings overall, it said.

Image generation AI tools such as Midjourney, DALL-E, and Firefly, have also cut production costs by $6 million – even though Klarna has run more campaigns so far this year, with AI generating over 1,000 images for the Swedish firm.

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It says that this has reduced the image development cycle from 6 weeks to 7 days – helping it streamline processes in its app and website for key events such as Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Spring refreshes, and sales.

“Traditionally, it would have been very costly to cater to these occasions with bespoke imagery but with AI that is no longer an issue, and we can create relevant imagery to support practically any event,” says David Sandström, CMO at Klarna.

“Essentially, we have removed the need for stock imagery.”

Klarna has also built its own AI-powered copywriting tool, Copy Assistant, which is responsible for 80% of Klarna’s copywriting.

In partnership with OpenAI, Klarna employees have built over three hundred GPTs for internal use, contributing to over a dozen AI-driven projects within marketing, and over one hundred across its organisation.