Klarna CEO launches AI hotline with his own likeness for direct customer feedback

Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski has launched an AI-powered phone hotline that allows customers and merchants to speak directly with an AI version of himself for feedback and questions. The system is trained on Siemiatkowski’s “real voice, insights, and experiences” and automatically processes calls into actionable insights for Klarna’s product teams, with the company claiming issues could translate into improvements within 24 hours.

How it works: The AI hotline creates an interactive experience where users can provide feedback about Klarna’s products and services while speaking to a digital clone of the CEO.
• Customers and merchants can discuss product features, issues, and suggestions for improvements with “AI Sebastian.”
• The AI can also answer questions about Klarna’s vision, mission, founding story, and journey based on learnings from the real CEO.
• After each call, a transcript and summary are generated and automatically analyzed by a large language model, populating an internal live feed and innovation dashboard.

The technical setup: Klarna’s product and engineering teams review the processed feedback to identify actionable insights and assign priority tasks.
• Phone numbers are available in the US (+14246675385) and Sweden (+46852512594).
• The AI consistently tries to redirect conversations back to gathering Klarna feedback, even when asked unrelated questions.
• When asked about Fortnite’s AI Darth Vader, the AI responded: “That’s an interesting question. My focus is entirely on Klarna and gathering feedback to improve our services.”

The bigger trend: This represents another step in Siemiatkowski’s embrace of AI to scale his executive presence.
• The CEO has previously used AI to replace himself during earnings reports.
• OpenAI also operates a similar service, allowing people to call ChatGPT at 1-800-CHATGPT.

Why this matters: The hotline demonstrates how companies are experimenting with AI to create more direct channels between leadership and customers, potentially changing how feedback is collected and processed at scale.