AI Helped IKEA Create €1.3 Billion In New Revenue (But Not How You Think)

2026-07-10 · Source: Featured Blogs - Forrester · Field: Business & Management — Corporate Strategy & Leadership, Human Resources & Workforce Development, Operations & Process Management · Depth: Fundamental Awareness, quick

Summary

Ingka Group, IKEA's largest retailer, deployed an AI-powered customer service chatbot named "Billie" in 2021, which handled 47% of customer calls and saved €13/\$17.1 million. Instead of eliminating approximately 8,500 employees whose roles were impacted, IKEA reskilled and redeployed them into a new interior design and furnishing advisory service. This strategic move generated approximately €1.3/\$1.7 billion in new revenue in 2022, accounting for 3.3% of total revenue. This contrasts sharply with companies like Klarna, Ford, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and IBM, which faced service quality issues or had to rehire staff after attempting direct human replacement with AI for complex tasks.

Key takeaway

For executives and leaders navigating AI integration, your focus should shift from merely identifying jobs for elimination to discovering higher-value work for your people once AI handles repetitive tasks. Embrace AI as a tool to augment human capabilities, allowing your workforce to apply creativity, nuance, and judgment to differentiate your business. Invest in reskilling programs to transition employees into new, revenue-generating roles that leverage uniquely human strengths.

Key insights

AI's true value lies in enabling new human-led services, not just automating existing jobs for cost savings.

Principles

• AI excels at routine task automation
• Human judgment is critical for complex interactions
• Reskilling can create new revenue streams

Method

Deploy AI for high-volume, repetitive customer inquiries; identify unmet customer needs requiring human expertise; reskill affected employees; launch new human-centric advisory services.

In practice

• Automate 47% of customer calls with AI
• Analyze customer demand for new services
• Redeploy staff to advisory roles

Topics

• AI Workforce Impact
• Employee Reskilling
• Customer Service Automation
• Revenue Growth
• Human-AI Collaboration
• Organizational Strategy

Best for: Investor, CTO, AI Product Manager, Director of AI/ML, VP of Engineering/Data, Executive

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by Featured Blogs - Forrester.