What happened next?
AI helped the fintech company reduce its sales and marketing spend by 12% last year while expanding its presence to countries like Austria.
In May, Klarna announced a $6 million decrease in image production costs as well as a 25% decrease in external agency expenses, like production, translation, CRM, and social. Overall, AI contributed $10 million to its annual cost savings
But Klarna’s warm embrace of AI also has consequences. The company said in August that it plans to lay off half of its workforce in the next few years, partly citing AI’s growing capabilities.
Lessons learned
Klarna continues to assure that its AI use is still rooted in human insight, as it found that AI still struggles with larger, more complex campaigns. For example, its holiday campaign with NBA vet Shaquille O’Neal relied heavily on human creativity.
“When it comes to our big creative campaigns, we haven’t cracked how AI can help us create an idea,” said Sandstorm.
2. JLL
The Big AI moment
At ADWEEK’s Brandweek Conference in September, JLL CMO Siddharth Taparia shared his plan to implement AI at the real estate company.
Taparia, who joined the company in 2021, said he realized AI’s potential when ChatGPT launched in late 2022.
Since then, he’s identified AI use cases at JLL that prioritized quick wins and high-impact initiatives and set up a team of AI enthusiasts eager to build a culture around the technology.
What happened next?
In May 2023, the real estate firm introduced responsible AI guidelines. In August, it launched JLL GPT, a custom-built gen AI platform it used to pitch board members to further invest in the technology.
“Now we don’t just have their buy-in, but we also have their excitement and their enthusiasm behind us,” Taparia said at the conference.
Last month, JLL unveiled JLL Falcon, an AI platform that combines its proprietary data with generative AI “to deliver customized capabilities and practical recommendations for investors, occupiers, and building professionals,” per its site. It is one of many AI platforms the company has developed.
