Answering the first customer service enquiry · Contested (since 2024)

On 27 February 2024, Klarna reported that its assistant had handled 2.3 million conversations in one month, two thirds of its customer service chats and the equivalent of 700 full-time agents, and on 9 May 2025 its chief executive said the cost-driven approach had produced lower quality and that the company was hiring human agents again.

The scripted enquiry is the machine's. Where is my parcel, change my address, cancel this order, resend the invoice, all of it resolves faster and at any hour without a person. The Klarna case is worth reading in both directions, because the same company published the strongest numbers in favour and then the clearest retreat, and it kept the assistant while putting people back behind it. What the assistant could not carry was the case where the cost of being wrong rises: the disputed charge, the hardship call, the customer who is already angry and needs someone with the authority to depart from the rule. That authority is the thing being contested, not the ability to compose a reply.