this post was submitted on 14 May 2025
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373
Klarna Hiring Back Human Help After Going All-In on AI (gizmodo.com)
submitted 1 day ago by Novocirab@feddit.org to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] Kraven_the_Hunter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I don't even know what Klarna does and don't care to look it up. They bought an app that I used to use for managing loyalty cards. Before Klarna bought them, the app would pop the loyalty card into my notifications as soon as I entered the store. When is time to check out the card was right there waiting for me.

After Klarna bought them, the convenient auto-notification went away. Then you'd load up the app and it takes you to a default home page with "Try X", "Special discount on Y, this week only" posted everywhere and none of it related to the store I'm in. The loyalty cards were buried somewhere I had to go find.

So I deleted the app and just use Google Wallet for my loyalty cards. Still no convenient auto notification with the card for the store I'm in, but Wallet is ready enough to get to and isn't plastered with ads.

[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 6 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

They’re a buy-now-pay-later company for e-commerce. Just about the scummiest industry to be in.

[–] flop_leash_973@lemmy.world 34 points 1 day ago

And no one that has an option should take them up on those job offers.

They have shown what they will do again as soon as they think AI gets good enough.

[–] flamingo_pinyata@sopuli.xyz 124 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I'm not sure there will be a difference either way. Customer service jobs spent decades trying to train humans to act as much as robots as possible. Of course replacing them with a shitty bot seemed to make sense, they were already pretending to be shitty bots.
Any "quality" in customer support comes from individuals circumventing company rules to provide actual support to the customer. AI can't do that.

[–] Draegur@lemm.ee 45 points 1 day ago

You're right, absolutely spot on, about several things but ONE IN PARTICULAR is this:

A human being helping a customer is, quite literally, an act of circumvention. Customer service EXISTS, SPECIFICALLY, for scenarios that require exceptions and skilled, knowledgeable internal maneuvering within, between, and around the cold mechanisms of machinery and policy. We tend to think of, say, purchasing items at a store as standard operation, for instance. But really, from the perspective of the business, its objective is to RESTRICT access to goods and services. The cashier manages exceptions to this goal. If the company has its way, it would take your money while relinquishing NOTHING.

[–] uranibaba@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I do not agree with the idea that humans are being trained to act like robots. Any company with a customer service department is likely tracking the root causes of their customers' issues. With enough data, they can identify the most common problems and their solutions. If the goal is to resolve a customer’s issue as quickly as possible (which seems like a reasonable assumption), it makes sense to guide the customer through the most common solutions first, as that will likely solve the problem.

If someone works in customer service and repeats the same script daily, it's understandable that they may come across as robotic due to sheer boredom. A skilled customer service representative can recognize when to use the script and when to deviate. However, if a company fails to hire the right people and does not offer a fair salary, those best suited for the role are unlikely to take the job.

[–] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)

My wife is a customer service manager/trainer. Hiring actually competent people who know how to just listen to the customer and understand their needs is apparently really fucking hard. I've heard some stories of such dumbfuckery...

And once they are in, HR/lawyers make it so fucking hard to fire anyone. If you get a decent customer service person, either as an employer or customer, appreciate them.

[–] pinkfluffywolfie@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

I work in support; not only is it hard to find someone competent but it's an incredibly draining job/career because of both management and customers. People are attracted to it because barrier to entry is low, and half the time the actual technical part isn't necessarily hard, it's the emotional baggage you're expected to carry essentially at all times. There's been multiple instances where I've been so burned out, I'm almost certain it's permanently altered my brain chemistry. On top of that you have low wages, long hours, some places are B2B calls, expected to handle multiple chats at once, and some managers really like to snoop to see what you're doing all day(I see your icon went idle for 3 seconds, you're not taking a bathroom break are you? We need all hands on deck at all times).

This will never go away as long as it's seen as a job any idiot can do. Companies need to change how they truly value support and only then will it get better for the customer. I agree with you; if you find someone good try to be appreciative because the bad ones are a dime a dozen and we are all paid shit.

[–] donuts@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

In my experience, they always hire anyone with a pulse and pay them peanuts. Finding a competent and motivated person is a lot harder then.

The only one where they had some sort of screening was because it was support for the government

[–] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago

My wife is only allowed to ask a very specific set of questions to candidates. She can't deviate. It's fucking ridiculous. This is a multi-million dollar company, but they aren't so big to have all this process. They have maybe less than 100 total employees, certainly less than 200. I'm frustrated by proxy for her.

[–] Libra@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago

it makes sense to guide the customer through the most common solutions first, as that will likely solve the problem.

And this why you have to suffer through those lengthy recordings that tell you about a bunch of shit that generally doesn't apply to your situation before you can even use the menu, much less talk to a person. I am disabled, I have had to be on the phone with the Social Security Administration, Medicare, my insurance company, and various state benefits agencies probably 15-20 times a year for the past ~14 years, and I can count on one hand the number of times those 'common solutions' were even remotely applicable. I don't even need fingers to count the number of times they have actually contained the solution to my issue, because it has literally never happened.

Once you get to a person who can make an assessment about what's going on it makes sense for them to cover a few basics (I used to do tech support, I know how much time a simple, 'Are you sure it's plugged in?' can save), but replacing customer service with AI means you're pretty much stuck in those recordings for your entire call. Now to be fair this can be done better than most places do it. I shop on amazon a fair bit (can't drive so I order most things online) and when I have issues I honestly prefer dealing with the livechat AI than calling because it's a much faster and smoother experience and they can quickly bump you over to an actual agent when there's a weird thing going on that's outside of its scope. But most companies don't have Amazon's customer service budget to do shit like that well, so usually what I get is 'If you're calling about XYZ, hang up and dial this number. Did you know that if your birthday is on an odd-numbered day blahblah-ad-blahblah? If the crescent moon is waning and the distant hills are draining and the watchful eye is straining...' etc.

[–] boreengreen@lemm.ee 40 points 1 day ago (1 children)

AI support is equivalent to an interactive and searchable FAQ.

[–] SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 24 points 1 day ago

A FAQ that may have incorrect, often contradictory information.

[–] Guidy@lemmy.world 23 points 1 day ago

It sounds like Klarna is a nightmare that should be avoided as much as possible.

[–] Libra@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

They had to invest how much money into AI to realize this thing that literally anyone on the street would've happily told them for free? And they probably paid some consultant even more money to tell them it was a good idea. sigh.

[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Consultancy is where the dollars are at. You get big money to tell people to implement things that won't work, and then your contract is up and you're out of there before shit hits the fan.

[–] Libra@lemmy.ml 3 points 23 hours ago

Yeah, paying someone else to tell you what to do with your business when they will bear none of the consequences for the things they tell you to do are is just mad.

[–] chaosCruiser@futurology.today 29 points 1 day ago

Klarna claimed that AI chatbots were handling two-thirds of customer service conversations within their first month of deployment and went on to claim that AI was doing the work of 700 customer service agents. The problem is that it’s really doing the work of 700 really bad agents, and that quality took a toll.

I think the problem here was in correctly identifying which tasks are simple enough for a bad customer service AI to handle. Anything more complicated than that should be given to a human.

[–] thebestaquaman@lemmy.world 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)

With all the AI rollout in customer support, I've essentially built up a habit of almost immediately trying to get in touch with a human if the bot doesn't give me what I'm looking for right away. My experience is that in most cases, the bot will try to walk me in circles, recommending that I try stuff I've already tried (that's why I'm contacting support). In all those cases, the bot isn't saving the company any time, it's just wasting my time and making me irritated.

In some cases it does save them support capacity, if only because I eventually give up on getting any support and just quit the service.

[–] EmptySlime@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Well yeah the AI support is just the next iteration of confusing telephone trees and long wait times. The direct hope is that they make it just convoluted enough that a chunk of people that they before would have to "waste money" serving and fixing whatever problem they had will instead just give up without opening them up to liability for denying service. Only now they can do it while hiring even fewer actual people to handle the cases that get through.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This tactic works fork monopolies or when all other services grade A shite.

If there is any competition in the market. They will suffer

[–] phdepressed@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

All the services are doing the same AI bs except maybe actual local business (and even some of them) if they still exist.

[–] SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 day ago

Every time I interact with AI, I feel like I gotta take a shit.

But then again I get a lot of fiber in my diet

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 9 points 1 day ago

A disgusting money changer that shouldn't exist but some how the normie will use it 🤡

[–] Merlin@lemm.ee 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They are still going ai first on everything but customer support though. Any person who quits apparently won’t get the position filled by anyone else, whoever is left needs to try to use ai to make up for that person

[–] Libra@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago

So, your bog-standard 'we're improving the company by making everyone do the work of 2 people on the salary of 1' routine. :P

[–] Abrinoxus@thelemmy.club 7 points 1 day ago

when the fog clears..

[–] Psaldorn@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Didn't take long.

[–] kaeurennetwo@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago

I love technology but I hate censorship.