Why We Choose Humans Over AI for Customer Support: Lessons from Klarna's U-Turn
When Klarna announced they were resuming human customer service hiring after a year-long pause, it sent ripples through the fintech world. The Swedish buy-now-pay-later giant had previously claimed their AI chatbot could replace the work of 700 agents. Now, CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski has admitted that while AI helped cut costs, it failed to meet their standards for customer experience.
This reversal offers a crucial lesson for financial services: when it comes to money matters, there's no substitute for human understanding.
The AI Promise vs. Reality
Klarna's initial AI strategy seemed impressive on paper. Their chatbot handled over 2.3 million conversations within a month, supported 35+ languages, and managed topics from returns to payments. The company aimed to automate 75% of customer support interactions, cutting operational costs whilst maintaining service levels.
But numbers don't tell the whole story. According to early users, the chatbot often acted as little more than a gateway to human support rather than a complete solution. What looked like efficiency gains on dashboards translated to frustration for customers who needed real help with real problems.
The financial services industry has seen this pattern before. Banks rush to implement AI customer service, only to discover that when people are worried about their money, they want to speak to a human who can truly understand their situation and provide personalised solutions.
When Financial Stress Meets Digital Walls
Consider this scenario: you're struggling to make ends meet, and you need to understand your repayment options. You're already stressed about money, perhaps embarrassed about your situation, and definitely in need of reassurance. The last thing you want is to navigate through an AI system that can't grasp the nuances of your circumstances or provide the empathy you need.
When financial stress is involved, people need more than just answers—they need understanding, patience, and the reassurance that comes from speaking to someone who genuinely cares about resolving their situation. AI simply cannot replicate these fundamentally human skills, especially when dealing with sensitive financial matters.
The Customer Expectation Gap
Recent discussions among customer success professionals reveal a telling insight: people don't just prefer human interaction in financial services—they expect it. As one customer success manager put it, "When you're frustrated with a service you're paying £10,000+ a year for, do you get the same satisfaction complaining to a bot or to a real person?"
This expectation becomes even more pronounced in financial services, where:
Trust is paramount - customers need confidence that their concerns are understood and will be properly addressed
Situations are complex - financial circumstances often involve multiple factors that require human judgement
Stakes are high - poor customer service can directly impact someone's financial wellbeing
Emotional support matters - money troubles often come with stress, anxiety, and shame that require genuine human empathy
Violeta Filip, Head of Customer Experience at SteadyPay, has witnessed this expectation firsthand: "I'll be honest—we've all had those frustrating experiences with chatbots, haven't we? Now imagine that happening when you're already stressed about money. At SteadyPay, our customers have given us over 91% satisfaction scores for more than 14 months running, because we believe that when someone's dealing with financial stress, they deserve to speak to a real person who actually gets it."
What Klarna's Experience Teaches Us
Klarna's reversal isn't just about customer satisfaction scores (though those certainly mattered). It's about recognising that customer service in financial services serves a deeper purpose than simply answering questions. It's about:
Building genuine relationships - Long-term customer loyalty in finance comes from trust, which is built through consistent, human interactions over time.
Providing reassurance during stress - Financial difficulties are inherently stressful. Human agents can provide emotional support that AI simply cannot match.
Handling complex situations - Real financial situations rarely fit into neat categories. Human agents can navigate grey areas and make nuanced decisions.
Maintaining brand reputation - Poor customer service experiences in finance spread quickly through word-of-mouth and reviews, damaging brand trust.
What AI Can't Replicate
So what exactly can human agents provide that AI cannot? The answer lies in capabilities that go far beyond processing information:
Make real-time exceptions to policies based on intuition - recognising when circumstances warrant flexibility beyond standard procedures
Feel genuine emotional investment in the outcome - truly caring whether the customer's problem gets resolved satisfactorily
Build long-term relationships and remember personal context - understanding a customer's history and treating them as an individual, not a ticket number
Navigate complex company processes with flexibility - knowing when and how to escalate issues or find creative solutions
Provide the psychological comfort of "another human cares about my problem" - offering reassurance that goes beyond just solving the technical issue
SteadyPay's Human-First Approach
At SteadyPay, we've always believed that when people are dealing with financial stress, they deserve to speak to real humans who understand their situation. Our customer service team isn't just there to answer questions—they're there to provide support, guidance, and reassurance when you need it most.
Our approach recognises that:
Every customer's situation is unique - There's no one-size-fits-all solution to financial challenges
Empathy can't be programmed - Understanding someone's financial stress requires genuine human connection
Flexibility matters - Sometimes the best customer service means bending the rules when circumstances warrant it
Trust is earned through relationships - Consistent, personal interactions build the trust that's essential in financial services
Filip reflects on what makes this approach successful: "What really gets me is when I read our customer feedback. People use words like 'understanding' and 'patient'—that tells me we're not just solving problems, we're actually helping people feel heard. Behind every customer query is a real person, often feeling vulnerable about their situation. Sometimes they just need someone to say 'I understand, let me help you sort this out.' You can't replicate that kind of genuine human connection through technology alone."
The Future: Humans Enhanced, Not Replaced
This doesn't mean technology has no place in customer service. AI can handle routine queries, provide instant responses to simple questions, and help human agents access information quickly. But the key is using technology to enhance human capability, not replace human judgement.
The most successful financial services companies will be those that use AI to handle the routine tasks, freeing up human agents to focus on what they do best: building relationships, solving complex problems, and providing the emotional support that customers need when dealing with money matters.
The Bottom Line
Klarna's experience proves what many of us in financial services have long suspected: when the stakes are high and emotions are involved, customers want—and deserve—human interaction. AI might be able to process transactions and answer simple questions, but it cannot provide the empathy, flexibility, and genuine understanding that people need when dealing with financial stress.
In an industry built on trust, the human touch isn't just nice to have—it's essential. Companies that recognise this and invest in genuine human customer service will build stronger relationships, earn greater loyalty, and ultimately succeed where their AI-first competitors fall short.
Because when it comes to your financial wellbeing, you shouldn't have to fight through chatbots to get the help you need. You should be able to speak to a real person who understands that behind every account number is a human being with real concerns, real struggles, and real needs.
Sources: Klarna Reverses Course on AI Customer Support, Resumes Human Hiring - FinTech Weekly, Customer Success Community discussions on Reddit
💬 Ready to Experience the Difference?
At SteadyPay, our human customer service team is here when you need us. No chatbots, no endless phone trees — just real people ready to help with your questions and concerns.
📲 Download the SteadyPay app and discover what customer service looks like when humans come first.