Klarna Uses Gen AI to Save US$10m in Marketing Costs and Boost Campaigns
Klarna CMO David Sandström says: “AI is helping us become leaner, faster and more responsive to what our customers care about, leading to a much, much better experience.
“And we’re actually driving more marketing activity while saving tens of millions of dollars a year.
“Traditionally, it would have been very costly to cater to these occasions with bespoke imagery, but with AI that is no longer an issue. Essentially, we have removed the need for stock imagery.”
By leveraging Gen AI, Klarna has been able to generate over 1,000 original images in Q1 2024 alone, pointing to the increased production benefits of Gen AI as well as cost reduction.
The rapidity at which Klarna has been able to generate new images has seen its image development cycle reduce from six weeks to seven days.
It was not just in image production where Gen AI has helped Klarna reduce costs markedly. Klarna has been able to secure a further US$4m in expenditure reduction by cutting costs on external marketing suppliers for translation, production and social agencies.
What’s more, Gen AI has helped Klarna drive efficiencies outside of marketing entirely. The fintech’s recent partnership with OpenAI for an AI assistant to be used in its customer service division has seen AI take on the work equivalent to 700 full-time agents.
