Klarna Cuts Resolution Times 10X for 35M US Customers with ElevenLabs Voice AI
NEW YORK — Klarna has dramatically accelerated phone-based customer support by deploying ElevenLabs’ ElevenAgents voice AI platform, reducing time to resolution by a factor of 10 for its 35 million U.S. customers.
The partnership marks the latest expansion of Klarna’s aggressive AI customer-service strategy. According to an announcement from ElevenLabs, the voice agents now serve as the first line of phone support, replacing or augmenting traditional call-center operations for a significant portion of inquiries.
The deployment builds on Klarna’s earlier success with text-based AI. In 2024, the Swedish fintech reported that its OpenAI-powered assistant handled two-thirds of customer service chats globally, conducting 2.3 million conversations in its first month. That system was credited with cutting average resolution times from 11 minutes to approximately two minutes while maintaining customer satisfaction scores on par with human agents and reducing repeat inquiries by 25%.
Voice AI Deployment Details
ElevenLabs’ announcement highlights that Klarna is now using ElevenAgents — the company’s enterprise voice platform — to deliver natural, real-time phone conversations. The system is positioned as the primary point of contact for many inbound calls, allowing customers to resolve issues through voice interaction rather than waiting for human agents.
While specific technical details such as model sizes or exact latency metrics were not disclosed in the announcement, ElevenLabs positions ElevenAgents as part of its complete AI Voice platform for enterprise customers. Other early adopters mentioned alongside Klarna include Eldra (elderly home care support), Better (AI-assisted lending via “Betsy”), and Everlywell.
Klarna’s move into voice represents a logical progression from its text-based AI success. The company has aggressively embraced generative AI to reduce operational costs and improve response times across its “buy now, pay later” ecosystem. The U.S. market, home to 35 million Klarna customers, is a key proving ground for the voice technology.
Previous AI Results and Context
Klarna’s earlier AI assistant, launched globally in 2024, demonstrated strong results: it performed the equivalent work of 700 full-time agents, achieved human-level customer satisfaction, and improved first-contact resolution accuracy. The reported reduction in resolution time from 11 minutes to roughly two minutes aligns with the new “10X faster” claim for the voice deployment, though exact before-and-after voice metrics were not broken out separately in the ElevenLabs release.
The company has operated its AI tools across 23 markets and more than 35 languages, suggesting the new voice agents are likely multilingual as well.
Industry Impact
For developers and enterprises, the Klarna-ElevenLabs partnership provides further evidence that voice AI has matured enough for high-volume, customer-facing deployment at scale. Companies building voice agents can point to Klarna’s results as validation that conversational voice AI can deliver both dramatic efficiency gains and maintain customer experience quality.
The announcement also intensifies competition in the enterprise voice AI space. ElevenLabs, traditionally known for its high-quality text-to-speech models, is now directly competing with other voice agent platforms by offering end-to-end conversational agents suitable for customer support.
What’s Next
ElevenLabs did not provide a detailed timeline for further expansion or additional metrics. The company is expected to share more case studies from its enterprise voice platform in the coming months as additional customers like Eldra, Better, and Everlywell report results.
Klarna has not yet issued its own detailed public statement on the voice AI rollout beyond the joint announcement. Industry observers will be watching for updated figures on overall agent displacement, customer satisfaction scores specific to voice interactions, and any measurable impact on operational costs.
The deployment underscores the rapid shift toward multimodal AI in financial services customer experience. As voice agents become more reliable and emotionally intelligent, more large consumer-facing companies are expected to test or fully implement similar first-line voice support systems in 2025 and beyond.
This article is based on the official announcement from ElevenLabs and previously reported Klarna AI performance metrics.