Fintech and e-commerce platform Klarna is testing a handful of new features for its AI-powered shopping assistant. Klarna’s AI now works as a chatbot that employs OpenAI’s AI models to streamline shopping and tailor the experience to your preferences. The idea is to turn searching for a product or deal into a conversation and fine-tune Klarna’s recommendations to better match what you like.
Klana envisions its AI chatbot as a sort of personal shopping assistant that you can talk to as if you were a human. If you have specific requests based on particular details about a product or its rating, the assistant can put together a more specific list than you would get from a keyword search. The AI will also curate reviews, graphically record price changes, and take the lead in its responses. You can then complete the purchase through the Klarna app.
Even without you asking a specific question, AI will make recommendations for things you might like based on your past history and stated preferences. Klarna described how AI could offer you ideas based on things you buy at a certain time of year or the colours and brands you typically choose for products like clothing and accessories.
If you're someone who does a lot of research before purchasing, Klarna's AI tool will speed up the process by creating product comparisons that match your request in terms of price or other aspects. The AI will even lay out and compare the positive and negative reasons for purchasing each option. And if you're more of a “I don't know what to buy for an upcoming trip or event” type, you can ask the AI and it will create a shopping list before diving into specific suggestions on what to buy based on your budget and needs.
“For decades, the tech industry assumed that the online shopping experience was tied to a small number of big tech players, leading to underinvestment. That has created an opportunity for companies like Klarna and we are using AI to challenge the incumbents,” said David Fock, Chief Product and Design Officer at Klarna. “We’ve combined the intelligence of LLMs, the insight of Pricerunner and the user experience of Klarna to create a more seamless and intuitive chat-based shopping experience.”
Klarna is one of the first companies to incorporate AI into its platform, but it’s not the only online shopping source to incorporate AI into its platform. Amazon launched the Rufus chatbot earlier this year, which serves a very similar function to Klarna’s chatbot. Rufus uses Amazon’s AI models to recommend purchases and provide details about products in a conversational way. Since this is Amazon, that can include ads, too. Just this week, the company introduced a new AI recommendation system that’s personalized with greater detail than before, with product titles fine-tuned to highlight whatever aspect of a product you’re currently looking for.
To create its AI assistant, Klarna trained the OpenAI model to know all 5.6 million+ products available. That way, the chatbot is less likely to fall prey to hallucinations and can share accurate costs, availability, and delivery options — even if there are cash-back options. It relies on the company’s partnership with OpenAI to manage customer service, which quickly scaled up to handle most incoming requests, doing the equivalent of 700 customer service agents and conducting more than 2 million conversations in just a few weeks.
“Klarna is at the forefront of harnessing the potential of AI to deliver tangible benefits to customers,” said Brad Lightcap, COO of OpenAI. “We’re excited to continue collaborating and showcasing the power of AI at scale.”
