(Boursier.com) — Teleperformance plunged by almost 25% on the stock market this Wednesday to 99.80 euros. The fall is undoubtedly due to the deployment by the Swedish group Klarna of an assistant based on artificial intelligence, which seems extremely promising and could thus compete harshly with players in the call center sector. Thus, Klarna indicated yesterday in a press release that its AI assistant powered by OpenAI, now deployed globally for a month, had provided exceptional results. “The numbers speak for themselves,” according to the group, which says the AI assistant had 2.3 million conversations, or two-thirds of Klarna’s customer service chats. “It does the equivalent of the work of 700 full-time agents,” estimates the group, which adds that the assistant “is on par with human agents when it comes to customer satisfaction score.”
Klarna’s AI assistant reportedly leads to a sharp 25% drop in repeat requests. It is available in 23 markets, 24/7 and communicates in more than 35 languages. “It is estimated that this will generate a profit improvement of $40 million for Klarna in 2024,” assesses the group, which also noted “a considerable improvement in communication with local immigrant and expatriate communities on all our markets thanks to linguistic support.
Available within the Klarna app, the assistant is designed to improve the shopping and payment experience for Klarna’s 150 million consumers worldwide. It is capable of handling a range of tasks from multilingual customer service to managing refunds and returns, and “fostering healthy financial habits”… “This launch marks a significant step forward in Klarna’s vision of A fully AI-powered financial assistant aimed at saving consumers time, peace of mind and money, while making the global retail banking industry more efficient and consumer-focused. Exciting new features are already in the works and will soon be added to the AI assistant. Additionally, customers can still choose to interact with live agents if they wish,” summarizes Klarna.
“Klarna is at the forefront among our partners in the adoption and practical application of AI,” said Brad Lightcap, OpenAI’s chief operating officer. “Together we are unlocking the vast potential of AI to boost productivity and improve our daily lives.”
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“This AI breakthrough in customer interaction means superior experiences for our customers at better prices, more interesting challenges for our employees and better returns for our investors,” said Sebastian Siemiatkowski, co-founder and CEO of Klarna. “We are extremely excited about this launch, but it also highlights the profound impact that AI will have on society. We want to reaffirm and encourage society and politicians to think carefully about this issue and are convinced that proper management attentive, enlightened and constant will be essential to navigate this transformation of our societies.”
And that’s not all, since Klarna According to Bloomberg, it is in talks with banks with a view to its initial public offering on Wall Street, as part of an operation which could value the Swedish nugget at $20 billion. Fintech Klarna Bank AB was once the most valuable startup in Europe, Bloomberg recalls. Citing people familiar with the plans, Bloomberg said the Stockholm group, a leader in buy now, pay later businesses, recently began in-depth discussions with investment banks to working on an IPO which could take place as early as the third quarter. Klarna is therefore considering a valuation of around $20 billion. Deliberations are ongoing and details of the offer, such as valuation and timing, could change, Bloomberg’s sources said, asking not to be identified because the information is confidential.
CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski told Bloomberg in January that a U.S. IPO was likely to happen relatively quickly, noting that the country was Klarna’s largest market by revenue, with more of 37 million customers. The comments came after the company posted its first overall profitable quarter, following four years of losses. Klarna has been profitable in the United States for over a year.