Klarna is a Swedish financial technology company that offers buy now, pay later services, payment solutions, and shopping services to customers. Founded in 2005, Klarna allows consumers to shop online and pay for their goods over time through installments rather than paying the full amount upfront.
With over 147 million customers globally, Klarna is one of the world’s largest private fintechs. It offers services in areas like:
- Buy now, pay later
- Installment plans
- Payment solutions
- Price-drop guarantees
- Loyalty programs
- Virtual shopping
- And more
In 2023, Klarna began leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance its customer service through the launch of its AI-powered assistant.
What is Klarna’s AI Assistant?
In early 2023, Klarna unveiled its AI assistant to help support and service customers. The assistant is powered by OpenAI’s GPT technology and can manage various customer service needs and queries through conversational chat.
Essentially, Klarna’s AI assistant aims to:
- Provide 24/7 instant support to customers
- Resolve common issues and questions
- Improve efficiency in customer service
- Reduce wait times
- Enhance overall customer experience
Some examples of what Klarna’s assistant can help with include:
- Answering questions about Klarna’s services, products, and policies
- Providing support for payment and billing issues
- Helping reset passwords or usernames
- Addressing concerns with orders or deliveries
- And much more
The assistant leverages machine learning and natural language processing to understand customer questions and provide helpful, relevant responses. Over time, it continues to learn to improve its knowledge.
How Does Klarna’s AI Assistant Work?
Klarna’s AI assistant functions through conversational chat. Customers can access it online or through Klarna’s mobile app and simply ask questions or explain issues in everyday language.
Powered by OpenAI’s generative AI, the assistant comprehends the intent behind customer queries and provides tailored responses. It does this step-by-step:
- Listen: The AI assistant takes in the customer’s typed question or issue and utilizes natural language processing algorithms to analyze the content.
- Comprehend: It then interprets the core meaning and intent behind the customer’s chat to understand exactly what they need help with.
- Research: The assistant scans its vast knowledge base and finds the most correct information related to the specific customer query. This might involve combing through FAQs, help center articles, support documents, and other resources.
- Respond: Finally, the AI assistant provides a custom response directly answering the customer’s question or addressing their issue. The response is conversational as if chatting with a human agent.
Over the course of thousands of customer service chats, Klarna’s AI assistant continuously learns and improves to handle more complex topics and questions.
What Can You Use Klarna’s AI Assistant For?
Klarna designed its assistant to be versatile enough to assist customers with a wide variety of common support needs such as:
Account and Order Questions
- Check order status
- Track deliveries
- Review payment history
- Retrieve statements
- Check account balances
Payments Help
- Troubleshoot declined payments
- Reset or update payment methods
- Change installment plan schedules
- Manage billing details and history
Technical Support
- Access account if locked out
- Resolve login and password issues
- Investigate app errors or glitches
- Fix problems with two-factor authentication
General Information
- Learn about various Klarna products and services
- Get explanations regarding policies, fees, etc.
- Ask questions regarding how Klarna works
- Find responses to FAQs
The AI assistant has access to immense amounts of data and resources that equip it to handle this broad scope of customer service needs 24/7.
What Results Has Klarna Seen With Its AI Assistant?
Since launching its AI-powered assistant in early 2023, Klarna has seen very promising results when it comes to effectively managing customer issues and improving support.
Here are some key metrics Klarna shared:
- 2/3 Of Customer Service Chats Handled by AI Assistant Within the first month, Klarna’s AI assistant autonomously handled about two-thirds of all customer service chats. This freed up human agents to focus on the most complex cases.
- AI On Par With Top Human Agents Klarna reported that its AI assistant can resolve customer issues with the same level of quality as its top-performing human agents about 61% of the time.
- Equivalent of 700 Additional Staff Thus far, the productivity gains from Klarna’s AI assistant amounts to adding about 700 more staff to its customer service department – saving substantial costs.
Overall, Klarna stated that approximately 130,000 customer service conversations were resolved through its AI assistant per day on average. The success led Klarna to expand availability of the AI assistant to mobile app users as well in early 2024 to further scale support.
How Can You Access and Use Klarna’s AI Assistant?
As a customer looking for instant help or answers related to your Klarna account, purchases, or payments, you can easily access their AI assistant through:
Klarna Website
- Visit Klarna’s website
- Look for the chat widget which will connect you directly to Klarna’s AI assistant
- Type your question and start chatting
Klarna Mobile App
- Download Klarna’s mobile app (iOS or Android)
- Open the app and select the Profile tab
- Tap the “Chat with Klarna bot” option
- Ask your support question in the chat window
The great part about Klarna’s AI assistant is that it’s available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. So you can get assistance any time it’s convenient.
When chatting, simply explain your issue or support needs as clearly as possible. The AI will ask clarifying questions if additional details are required.
Additionally, feel free to start chats over if you need extra help or have follow-up questions. The assistant is designed to guide you to an optimal solution.
What’s Next For Klarna’s AI Assistant?
Given the immense success Klarna saw after launching its AI customer service assistant, powered by OpenAI’s natural language technology, the company aims to continue expanding its capabilities.
More Languages
Thus far, Klarna’s assistant only supports English but additional languages like Spanish, French, German and more are planned. This will allow the AI assistant to support Klarna’s global customer base across 20+ markets.
Deeper Product Support
Klarna intends to expand the assistant’s product knowledge related to its various services – particularly its core buy now, pay later platform. This may allow customers to conduct full purchases through the AI.
Personalized Recommendations
In the future, Klarna is interested in making the assistant more personalized by understanding individual customer data and transaction history to provide tailored recommendations and solutions.
Omnichannel Availability
There are also plans to make Klarna’s AI accessible across more channels like SMS, smart speakers, and potentially even retail stores. This omnichannel presence will enable customers to seek assistance conveniently at any stage of their journey.
Key Takeaways About Klarna’s AI Assistant
Key points to remember about Klarna’s revolutionary customer service AI assistant include:
- Launched in 2024, Klarna’s AI assistant handles common customer service needs 24/7 through conversational chat
- Powered by OpenAI’s natural language processing technology, the assistant interprets customer issues and questions to provide helpful responses
- Thus far, the AI assistant manages about two-thirds of Klarna’s customer chats across web and mobile app channels
- It resolves issues to the level of top human agents 61% of the time, providing support equivalent to 700 additional staff
- Customers can conveniently access Klarna’s assistant via website chat widget or mobile app for real-time, personalized assistance
- Klarna plans to continue expanding its AI assistant across more languages, channels, and products to further transform customer support
So in summary, Klarna’s AI-powered customer service assistant leverages cutting-edge AI to provide fast, efficient 24/7 support on par with top human agents – showcasing how conversational AI can disrupt industries.
FAQs
Here are some commonly asked FAQs related to Klarna’s AI assistant:
What is Klarna’s AI assistant?
Klarna’s AI assistant is a virtual customer service agent that uses conversational artificial intelligence to address customer questions, issues, and requests. It aims to provide helpful, personalized support 24/7.
When was Klarna’s AI assistant launched?
Klarna publicly launched its AI-powered assistant in early 2024 to enhance and expand its customer service capabilities.
How does Klarna’s AI assistant work?
It works through text-based conversations. Customers can chat with the assistant online or in Klarna’s mobile app. Using NLP, it understands questions and responses with tailored solutions by referencing training data, documents, and previous exchanges.
What types of customer service needs can the AI assistant handle?
It can address a wide variety of common customer needs like account security, payment help, order status, returns, deliveries, product information, subscriptions, and general FAQs.
Is there a live person I can chat with if the AI assistant falls short?
Yes. While the AI handles bulk customer service needs, human agents remain available to assist users with more complex issues the bot cannot sufficiently resolve.