Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of Swedish fintech company Klarna, says the organization is set to employ drastically fewer people. And he says he shares his outlook on the workforce with another CEO: Anthropic’s Dario Amodei. 

Siemiatkowski made the comments on the 20 VC podcast with Harry Stebbings earlier this week, where the CEO didn’t deny that the company has been steadily shrinking.

The CEO said that currently the company has about 3,000 employees. That’s down from 7,000 just four years ago. In another four, he says there will likely be less than 2,000—a reduction of one-third. 

Siemiatkowsk said employees leaving the company are not being replaced, and explained that AI’s integration allows for fewer employees.

Klarna’s slimming down comes even as buy now, pay later (BNPL) services are booming. Around 30% of Americans say they have used them, according to a 2025 Bankrate report. And in 2025, according to a PartnerCentric survey, 35% said they planned to use the services even more. The popularity is driven by the fact that Klarna, like other BNPL options, allows shoppers to split purchases into interest-free installments, pay within 30 days, or even opt for longer-term financing options. Likewise, thousands of retailers now accept BNPL.

Still, the success of such businesses no longer seems to equate to the need for more employees, as AI’s impact looms larger—something some leaders have been increasingly warning about. 

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Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei wrote of his gravest concerns about AI in a recent essay that included items like loss of autonomy, “misuse for destruction” and “powerful AI” which he writes is “definitely coming.”

Amodei writes: “I think it should be clear that this is a dangerous situation—a report from a competent national security official to a head of state would probably contain words like ‘the single most serious national security threat we’ve faced in a century, possibly ever.’ It seems like something the best minds of civilization should be focused on.” The CEO also predicted AI could remove the need for 50 percent of all white-collar entry-level jobs in the next one to five years, doubling down on a stance he’s warned about previously. 

Worryingly, Klarna’s CEO doesn’t disagree with Amodei’s stance, acknowledging that he’s “in Dario’s camp” on concerns around AI. 

“I want to be honest about the fact that I do think there’s going to be a very big shift,” Siemiatkowski said on the podcast. 

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