When it comes to using AI in marketing, Klarna is more aggressive than most. Earlier this year, the Swedish buy now, pay later brand boasted that the technology has allowed it to save “tens of millions of dollars a year” by cutting marketing hiring and external agency costs.

Chief Marketing Officer David Sandstrom details its approach in the newest edition of Ad Age’s Marketer’s Brief podcast.

“The culture here at Klarna is to move extremely fast and adopt AI as much as you can, but not recklessly,” he said. “That is the culture here internally, and if you don’t like that, I don’t think this is a great place to work right now.”

So far, that strategy appears to be working, as Klarna reported a 27% revenue increase for the first half of 2024, stating in August that “AI continues to make each of our employees more efficient.” It turned a $66 million adjusted operating profit compared to a $45 million loss in the same period of 2023.

“We’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on visualizing ideas, but they’re just sketches,” Sandstrom said. “AI is a fantastic tool for that nowadays.”

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Sandstrom has encouraged employees to use generative AI by setting deadlines that would be near impossible to meet without the technology.

“I would tell a team, ‘I want to see 10 mock-ups or sketches of this campaign, but you don’t have any budget,’” he said. “So either they learn how to draw, or they learn how to use AI.”

Sandstrom sees generative AI playing a big part in campaigns Klarna launches around annual retail events such as back to school or minor holidays. However, larger campaigns, such as a recent one promoting its new balance account and cash-back rewards program, “are still going to be 100% human,” he said.

In August, Klarna launched a savings account where users can store money from their bank account, receive refunds and receive new cashback rewards for shopping in the app.

The campaign stars Shaquille O’Neal earning cashback rewards as financial guru Shaquille O’Deal. Klarna produced the campaign in-house without using generative AI and will run it across TV, digital, out-of-home and social media throughout the year.

“I’m personally a big fan of simple ideas,” Sandstrom said. “I think we have too few of those ideas. I’ve seen this trend in the last couple of years where brands expect too much of the consumer.”

But just because the idea is simple doesn’t mean it’s easy to execute without a hitch, he added.

“Shaq couldn’t stop himself from adding more character and more fun all of the time,” Sandstrom said. “He’s the first celebrity we’ve worked with who we had to tell to tone it down a bit.”

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Also on the podcast, Sandstrom discussed how he found his way to Klarna after spending several years as the CEO of DDB Stockholm.