The news: Klarna and Splitit are pursuing AI initiatives to keep their products top-of-mind for consumers, per press releases.
- Klarna partnered with Google Cloud to power AI-backed hyperpersonalized marketing campaigns.
- Splitit debuted its Agentic Commerce Partner Program, bringing card-linked buy now, pay later (BNPL) plans to agent-powered shopping.
Why this matters: Klarna and Splitit are trialing two different ways to use AI for their consumers.
Klarna’s partnership aims to accelerate creative production with genAI, at a lower cost than hiring more creatives and marketers. These updates include “dynamic digital ‘lookbooks’” and hyperpersonalized ad campaigns with AI-derived visuals.
Splitit, on the other hand, is using AI to fuel more spend on its installment plans. While agentic commerce isn’t yet widely available, Splitit’s early move to make its installment plans agent-friendly could help the smaller player stand out from BNPL and giants who’ve yet to launch similar services.
Our take: Replacing human created art with AI generated images is a risky play for marketing. Consumers are tiring of AI slop—enthusiasm for AI-generated creator work plunged from 60% in 2023 to 26% in 2025, per Billion Dollar Boy. Klarna may reap the rewards of cost control, but consumers may bristle at the changes—just as they did with Klarna’s AI customer service agents.
Splitit’s BNPL angle with agentic commerce may help it establish a foothold in the installment plan arena, especially when tied to shoppers’ preferred cards that they trust and earn rewards.
This content is part of EMARKETER’s subscription Briefings, where we pair daily updates with data and analysis from forecasts and research reports. Our Briefings prepare you to start your day informed, to provide critical insights in an important meeting, and to understand the context of what’s happening in your industry. Non-clients can click here to get a demo of our full platform and coverage.