Klarna Launches AI-Powered CEO Hotline for Customer Feedback

Klarna's CEO is now taking your calls -- over an AI hotline

Jay Peters is a news editor covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme. Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski has already used AI to replace himself during earnings reports, and now Klarna is using AI to clone him another way: through an AI-powered phone hotline. The hotline is now open for users to provide feedback to an interactive AI version of Siemiatkowski that's trained on his "real voice, insights, and experiences," according to a press release. "Customers, including consumers and merchants alike, can speak to it about product features, issues and suggestions for improvements," Klarna says. "'AI Sebastian' can also answer questions about Klarna's vision and mission, and speak about its founding story and journey so far, based on learnings from 'real life Sebastian.'" After the hotline takes a call, a transcript and summary are generated that are "automatically analyzed by a large language model (LLM), populating an internal live feed and innovation dashboard." Klarna says its product and engineering teams will then review the "actionable insights immediately" and assign "priority tasks." The company claims that issues raised today could "translate into tangible product improvements already the following day." Phone numbers for the hotline are available now in the US, +14246675385, and Sweden, +46852512594. I called the US hotline just to see what the experience was like. After a brief message telling me the call may be recorded, the AI version of Siemiatkowski prompted me to share feedback about using Klarna. No matter what I asked AI Siemiatkowski, even sillier questions, the AI generally tried to push me back to sharing feedback. When I asked if it had talked to Fortnite's AI Darth Vader, for example, here's what it said: That's an interesting question. My focus is entirely on Klarna and gathering feedback to improve our services. I don't have information or conversations with characters from games like Fortnite. I'm here to hear your thoughts on Klarna. Is there anything else about your experience with Klarna that you'd like to share, or any ideas you have for how we could make things even better? OpenAI also has a hotline to talk with an AI chatbot. You can call ChatGPT at 1-800-CHATGPT.

I Called Klarna's New AI Hotline to Talk to the Company's 'CEO' -- Here's What Happened

Calling the hotline beats filling out a survey or sending an email. Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski has used an AI clone of himself to deliver earnings reports -- twice, once in December 2024 and again in May 2025. Now, the CEO is tapping into AI cloning technology for another purpose: to interact with customers through an AI-powered phone line. On Thursday, Klarna debuted a hotline for customers to provide feedback directly to an AI voice clone of Siemiatkowski. The clone was trained on the CEO's "real voice and insights," Klarna stated in a LinkedIn post about the launch. Through the hotline, anyone can call to ask questions, share feedback, and interact with the voice clone of Siemiatkowski. The AI clone is trained to answer questions about Klarna's values, mission, and founding story. The conversations are transcribed using AI; an automatically generated transcript and summary are sent to Klarna's product and engineering teams, per The Verge. Klarna promptly processes customer feedback, with teams reviewing actionable insights and assigning priority tasks. The company states that it aims to resolve issues raised during a call by the following day. Related: AI Cloning Hoax Can Copy Your Voice in 3 Seconds -- and It's Emptying Bank Accounts. Here's How to Protect Yourself. Klarna provided two numbers to call: +14246675385 for customers in the U.S. and +46852512594 for those in Sweden. The company noted that calls were free from their side, but standard rates or charges could apply from individual phone network providers. I wanted to test out Klarna's AI hotline in the U.S. to see if it lived up to the promised experience. I called the number, and at first, there was a brief message informing me that the call would be recorded. "I assume you have some feedback about Klarna for me," Siemiatkowski's voice clone prompted. "Could you tell me about your latest experience using Klarna?" When I asked why I should use Klarna, the voice clone walked me through different payment options: Pay Now, which requires immediate payment; Pay Later, which requires payment within 30 days; and Pay in 4, which breaks up a payment into four installments. The voice was uncannily similar to Siemiatkowski's, but at times, the responses sounded rehearsed, as though the voice was reading from documentation. Related: Klarna Introduces a Debit Card, Allowing Users to 'Buy Now, Pay Later' on the Spot When I asked, "What does it take to become CEO of Klarna?" the AI responded, "That's a great question. Becoming CEO of Klarna is about empowering people, being transparent, and putting the customer at the center of everything you do." I tried asking it other questions, but the AI was focused on getting me to give it feedback. For example, when I asked a fun question: "What does Klarna think about autonomous vehicles?" the AI responded, "That's an interesting question, but my focus is on gathering feedback." I got a more pointed response when I asked: "What do you think about Affirm?" Affirm is one of Klarna's main competitors, with each company having about 20% of the buy now, pay later market share in the U.S. The voice clone neatly sidestepped the question with the response: "I appreciate the question, but I am here to discuss feedback. I don't discuss other companies and their offerings." Related: 'A Game Changer': Klarna Becomes Walmart's Exclusive Buy-Now-Pay-Later Provider Overall, the hotline appears to be an intuitive way to give feedback, and it was a far better experience than filling out a survey or sending an email. Having the voice of the CEO on the other end was an empowering feeling, like my questions were going straight to the top. Klarna isn't the only company with a hotline to talk to an AI chatbot. ChatGPT-maker OpenAI has one too, at 1-800-CHATGPT.

Klarna opens hotline to CEO's AI avatar

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community. The avatar, trained on Siemiatkowski's real voice, insights and experiences, had is first outing at the company's recent results presentation, when it delivered fihnancial highlights to investors. Initially rolling out in the United States and Sweden, the new hotline provides a one-to-one conversational link between customers and Siemiatkowski's AI clone. As well as providing a feedback loop, 'AI Sebastian' can also answer questions about Klarna's vision and mission, and speak about its founding story and journey so far. Says Siemiatkowski: "For decades, customer feedback has been a dull, tedious exercise with filling out forms, rating experiences on arbitrary scales, and completing surveys no one ever reads. We're changing that. Our new approach transforms feedback into a natural, real-time conversation that's both engaging for customers and actionable for our teams. Now, customers can simply speak their minds, and their insights are delivered to the right people internally in real time, for them to fix." Each conversation generates an instant transcript and concise summary, automatically analyzed by a large language model (LLM), populating an internal live feed and innovation dashboard. Klarna's product and engineering teams then review the insights to assign priority tasks. Klarna's existing AI chatbot manages approximately 1.3 million customer interactions per month -- equivalent to the workload of 800 full-time human agents -- reducing repeat inquiries by 25% and lowering average resolution times from 12 minutes to under two minutes.