Klarna’s Blueprint for AI Success

A decade ago, it seemed like every company from DTC brands to insurance providers had branded itself as a tech company. Today, with the rise of large language models (LLMs), this trend has shifted: organizations increasingly aspire to be identified as AI companies, or at least as enterprises deeply invested in automation. However, the practical realities of operating an AI-driven organization often fall short of the ambitious claims. Examples of businesses transformed by AI remain surprisingly rare.

One standout exception is Klarna, which has leveraged AI to achieve real, measurable impact. As the company gears up for a potential IPO, CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski has been vocal about Klarna’s game-changing AI initiatives, backed by hard performance metrics. Their journey offers a blueprint for what’s possible when AI workflows are integrated into a truly intelligent system.

What’s driving Klarna’s remarkable AI-powered transformation? The answer lies in its development of a robust Knowledge Graph — a digital representation of organizational knowledge — powering intelligent workflows across the organization. At Bartleby.dev, we believe Knowledge Graphs are the cornerstone of next-generation AI applications, unlocking tailored capabilities that align seamlessly with a company’s unique operations.

By examining how Klarna built and applied its Knowledge Graph, we can uncover insights that your organization can use to harness AI effectively.

On the Training Data podcast, Siemiatkowski shared one of the key motivators for building their internal Knowledge Graph:

This is a problem many companies face — data siloed across tools and platforms — making it nearly impossible to realize AI’s full potential. Klarna addressed this issue head-on by constructing their own Knowledge Graph, built using the graph database Neo4j. The Knowledge Graph is accessible not only to employees but also to AI agents, fueling workflows that drive productivity and innovation.

Klarna’s Knowledge Graph has already delivered transformative results. Here are some highlights:

Enhanced Productivity: 90% of Klarna employees use AI tools daily, with 85% leveraging “KiKi”, their Knowledge Graph-powered AI chatbot

Modernized Tech Stack: Klarna has retired outdated systems like Salesforce while retaining high-value tools such as Slack

With organizational knowledge codified in their Knowledge Graph, Klarna has been able to build robust agentic workflows. Let’s take a look at a few.

Customer service has been one of the most visible success stories for Klarna’s AI transformation. Deployment of the agent took just a few months, and it’s already operating at an impressive scale, capable of handling two-thirds of all customer inquiries. The financial results are also impressive. The company has reduced their customer service expenses by 14% compared to the same period in 2023, without compromising customer happiness.

How Klarna might be leveraging their Knowledge Graph → by enriching their AI agent’s knowledge with organizational data (i.e. company policies) and customer-specific data (i.e. products, transactions), the agent can provide context-aware responses in real time. This integration minimizes handoffs to human agents, reducing costs while maintaining high satisfaction levels for customers.

Klarna is leveraging AI-driven workflows to revolutionize its marketing operations, achieving significant cost savings while enhancing efficiency and creativity. In particular, Klarna has streamlined the image creation cycle, reducing development time from six weeks to just seven days, enabling bespoke, event-specific imagery updates for different campaigns. AI also powers 80% of Klarna’s marketing copywriting through its Copy Assistant tool. Utilizing these new workflows, Klarna has cut external agency expenses by 25% and reduced image production costs by $6 million annually.

How Klarna might be leveraging their Knowledge Graph → by incorporating nuanced details about target audiences, past campaign performance, and brand guidelines, Klarna can automate content generation that remains in-line with the company’s strategic goals and company ethos.

Klarna announced new AI features for their shopping assistant in September, creating a chat-interface that provides a personalized shopping experience for customers, including product recommendations and real-time insights on pricing and availability. This type of workflow helps move potential customers from the discovery stage to the purchasing stage, all while delighting the user with a bespoke experience.

How Klarna might be leveraging their Knowledge Graph → by integrating product catalogs, user preferences, inventory levels, and real-time pricing data, the AI assistant can deliver highly personalized shopping experiences to customers.

By embedding organizational intelligence into every interaction, Klarna’s Knowledge Graph enables workflows that are not just automated but truly informed and optimized.

We expect to see many more press releases from Klarna announcing new AI-powered workflows. Here’s where we think they might go next:

1. Fraud Detection and Prevention: automate fraud detection by analyzing historical customer behavior in the Knowledge Graph to flag anomalies and suspicious transactions in real-time

2. Payment Lifecycle Optimization: track payment bottlenecks in the Knowledge Graph to power workflows to streamline transactions, leading to faster processing times and fewer failures

Klarna’s story underscores the transformative power of Knowledge Graphs as the foundation for AI-powered workflows. At Bartleby.dev, we specialize in building custom Knowledge Graphs designed to meet the specific needs of your business. Our approach empowers organizations to simplify workflows, improve decision-making, and unlock AI’s full potential.

1. Identify key nodes and relationships in your organization

2. Centralize and integrate data across disparate systems

3. Build AI-driven workflows tailored to your business objectives

AI workflows should be built on infrastructure that enables sustainable, scalable growth. With the right foundation, your business can lead in this new era of AI.

Ready to take the next step? Let’s build something extraordinary together. Reach out!