Why this webinar
Don't make the same mistake as Klarna.
Klarna cut 700 customer service roles between 2022 and 2024 and replaced them with AI. By mid-2025, it was rehiring after customer satisfaction collapsed. Most boards are still pushing for AI to reduce headcount, but evidence is now showing that this is the wrong target. The companies finding sustainable savings are the ones designing the human-AI combination correctly from the start.
0%
of companies that replaced staff with AI will rehire by 2027.
Source: Gartner, 2025
Will rehire · CSAT collapsed
Held on · designed correctly
What you'll learn
01
Why headcount reduction is the wrong unit of measurement for AI ROI What boards are asking for isn't actually what delivers sustainable value. We'll show you what to use instead, and how to make the case for it.
02
What the Klarna case and Gartner's 2027 rehiring prediction tell us Where AI actually falls short when it replaces humans rather than augmenting them, and the pattern that nearly every organisation repeating this mistake shares.
03
Where AI genuinely drives cost reduction in customer experience The specific workflow and volume types where AI delivers compounding savings without sacrificing satisfaction, drawn from real enterprise deployments.
04
How to structure people and AI together so savings compound The design principles behind human-AI combinations that actually work, and the sequencing that separates sustainable savings from expensive mistakes.
05
What to tell your leadership when they ask for cuts your AI strategy can't support A practical framework for leading the board conversation, including how to reframe the target and build a savings case that holds up to scrutiny.
The bigger picture
700
Roles cut by Klarna between 2022 and 2024. By mid-2025, they were rehiring, because customer satisfaction had collapsed. The savings weren't sustainable because the human-AI combination wasn't designed correctly from the start.
Source: Klarna, public announcements 2022–2025
"The companies finding sustainable savings are the ones designing the human-AI combination correctly from the start, not the ones reacting to board pressure with knee-jerk headcount cuts."
Roy Moussa, CEO, GetVocal
The cost of getting it wrong
CSAT collapse
Cutting human roles before AI is ready to absorb them leads to customer satisfaction falling, just as Klarna discovered when it scaled back its AI-only approach.
Expensive rehiring
Rehiring costs, recruitment, onboarding and retraining, often exceed the savings from the original headcount reduction, with a 12–18 month lag before performance recovers.
Board credibility lost
A failed headcount-first AI strategy damages internal confidence in AI programmes, making it harder to secure investment for the right approach when it's time to course correct.
Who this is for
Built for CX Leaders, Operations Directors, Heads of AI and digital transformation executives at enterprise organisations. If you're responsible for hitting savings targets while maintaining service quality, and you're being asked to make the case for AI to your board, this session is for you.
CX Leaders
Operations Directors
Heads of AI
Digital Transformation
CFOs & Finance Teams
Your speakers
Roy Moussa
CEO, GetVocal
Roy has worked with enterprise contact centres deploying voice AI at scale and has seen first-hand what happens to customer satisfaction when the human layer is removed too early. GetVocal works with organisations navigating exactly the transition this webinar covers.
Kane Simms
CEO & Founder, VUX
Kane has spent a decade advising enterprise organisations on conversational AI strategy and has interviewed hundreds of practitioners on what actually works in production. VUX is one of the leading voices in AI and customer experience globally.
.svg)