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David Sandstr\u00f6m, chief marketing officer at \u201cbuy now, pay later\u201d fintech startup Klarna, recently had to navigate budget cuts. Instead of holding a meeting with staff to hear their frustrations, he created an AI clone of himself that employees could call to unload their concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During a recent ElevenLabs webinar<\/a>, Sandstr\u00f6m said he used his AI-generated double as a kind of internal \u201cventing machine\u201d that listened to workers patiently. He explained that he designed his AI counterpart to remain consistently agreeable \u2014 quick to apologize and assume responsibility.<\/p>\n He told his team: \u201cI believe that people are probably quite pissed with me, and I would like to give them a way of expressing that without having to send me angry Slack messages.\u201d<\/p>\n Sandstr\u00f6m assembled his AI double to cut down on complaints during meetings, telling colleagues to call the number and vent there so in-person discussions could stay focused on what comes next.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI just didn\u2019t want to hear the whining in the meetings anymore,\u201d Sandstr\u00f6m said. \u201cSo I said, call this number, get it out of the system. When we then meet, we focus on the future.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Sandstr\u00f6m\u2019s AI experiment also shaped Klarna\u2019s next move. The company built a chatbot based on CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski that lets customers call in and share feedback. The bot learned from his podcast appearances, so it sounds and responds like him.<\/p>\n Klarna isn\u2019t the only company experimenting with AI clones. Uber employees are beginning to use an unusual new tool: an AI-generated version of CEO Dara Khosrowshahi to help refine their presentations, according to a February report<\/a> from Business Insider.\u00a0<\/p>\n Employees are reportedly using the digital replica as a kind of final checkpoint before major meetings. Staff can run their slides, talking points or strategy pitches through the AI avatar to get feedback that mirrors how the CEO might respond \u2014 what he would question, where he might push for clarity and which ideas he would likely prioritize.<\/p>\n \u201cThey basically make the presentation to the Dara AI as a prep for making a presentation to me,\u201d Khosrowshahi said on an episode of The Diary of a CEO podcast<\/a>. \u201cThey have Dara AI to tune their prep.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Meta is reportedly building a photorealistic AI avatar of CEO Mark Zuckerberg, trained on his voice, mannerisms and tone, so the company\u2019s 79,000 employees can interact with a virtual version of their boss. The goal is to make Meta\u2019s workers feel a closer, more direct connection to Zuckerberg \u2014 and allow him to skip some meetings.\u00a0<\/p>\n Other CEOs are using AI clones to report earnings. Sam Sidhu, CEO of Customers Bank, revealed late last month that he had used an AI replica of himself<\/a> to deliver the bank\u2019s first-quarter results with analysts.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe prepared remarks you heard on my behalf today were delivered by my AI clone, not read by me,\u201d Sidhu said during the call, according to CNBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n David Sandstr\u00f6m, chief marketing officer at \u201cbuy now, pay later\u201d fintech startup Klarna, recently had to navigate budget cuts. Instead of holding a meeting with staff to hear their frustrations, he created an AI clone of himself that employees could call to unload their concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\nOther AI clones of top executives<\/h2>\n
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