Klarna CEO: SaaS Companies to Consolidate as Customers Seek ‘Hub of Knowledge’

Klarna Founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said Tuesday (March 4) that there is likely to be a consolidation of software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies as their customers, who are adopting artificial intelligence (AI), seek a “hub of knowledge.”

Siemiatkowski said in a Tuesday post on X that Klarna has stopped using about 1,200 software-as-a-service (SaaS) suppliers in favor of its own internal tech stack, but that he doesn’t think all companies will follow that lead.

“Will all companies do what Klarna does? I doubt it,” Siemiatkowski said in the post. “On the contrary, much more likely is that we will see fewer SaaS consolidate the market, and they will do what we do and offer to others. Those are likely to be your next SaaS.”

When exploring the potential of AI and large language models (LLM), Klarna found that feeding an LLM fragmented corporate data would result in “a very confused LLM,” he said.

The company’s data was fragmented because it was spread out across a range of SaaS tools, according to the post.

“So, we decided to start consolidating; to put things together, connect our knowledge, and remove the silos,” Siemiatkowski said. “The side consequence of this was the liquidation of SaaS — not all of them, but a lot of them. And not for the license fees, even though those savings have been nice, but for the unification and standardization of our knowledge and data.”

Siemiatkowski compared the growth of AI to that of mobile devices, saying, “just like when mobile came long, we talked about mobile first, now you need to be AI first.”

“Of course all SaaS companies will need to learn, adopt and evolve,” Siemiatkowski added. “But if they do there is tremendous opportunity ahead.”

Klarna said in May that its deployment of AI tools helped the company reduce its operating expenses by 11%.

The company attributed this to efficiencies delivered by the tools, adding that 90% of its employees were using AI in their daily work.

“This internal AI revolution is further propelled by Kiki, Klarna’s bespoke internal AI assistant, which has adeptly responded to over 250,000 inquiries,” the company said in a financial update released in May.