---
id: "quote-klarna-quality"
type: "quote"
source_timestamps: ["§ This Approach Has Costs"]
tags: ["quality-control", "customer-service"]
related: ["entity-klarna", "claim-premature-layoffs-consequences"]
speaker: "Klarna CEO (via Bloomberg)"
speakers: ["Klarna CEO"]
sources: ["execution"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-execution"
originDay: 8
articleStem: "hbr-foci-62-layoffs-ai-potential-not-performance"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/01/companies-are-laying-off-workers-because-of-ais-potential-not-its-performance"
sourceTitle: "Companies Are Laying Off Workers Because of AI’s Potential—Not Its Performance"
---
# Klarna CEO on AI Cost-Cutting vs. Quality

> But in 2025 the company's CEO told Bloomberg that Klarna was reinvesting in human support, explaining that prioritizing lower costs had also led to "lower quality."

— Klarna CEO, via Bloomberg (see [[entity-klarna-d8]])

The single most concrete piece of evidence for the quality-degradation cost in [[claim-premature-layoffs-consequences]]. The CEO is not separately named in the source; attribution stays at the company level. (Enrichment: the Bloomberg article itself was not confirmed in the provided research set.)