Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski says AI is already reshaping knowledge work and warns that a major wave of job displacement is inevitable as automation spreads beyond banking and finance.
In a new Bloomberg interview, the chief executive of the Swedish fintech firm says many technology leaders are still reluctant to confront the full scale of disruption now unfolding across white-collar industries.
“Well, I, for one, have been trying to be a little bit more honest about this because I feel a lot of my tech bros are being slightly not to the point on this topic. I think there is a massive shift coming to knowledge work. And it’s not just in banking. It’s in society at large.”
He points to the example of translators working for European institutions to illustrate how quickly AI is eroding once-secure roles.
“There are 8,000 people in Brussels that work as translators. And I would argue that most of that can be done by AI today already even though obviously some quality assurance and so forth would still be valuable to have humans to review. But the point is you don’t need as many as we did.”
Siemiatkowski warns that new employment categories will eventually emerge, but not quickly enough to protect workers displaced in the current cycle.
“I think society will have to figure out what are we going to do because yes, new jobs will be created. But in the shorter term, that doesn’t help the Brussels translator. He’s not going to become a YouTube influencer tomorrow.”
Earlier this year, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned that AI would wipe out 50% of all white-collar entry-level roles, urging governments and AI firms to stop “sugar-coating” what’s in sight.
“Most of them are unaware that this is about to happen. It sounds crazy, and people just don’t believe it.”
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