Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke has a new hiring policy that places AI entrance and middle.
Lutke posted a memo he despatched to staff on X this week that encourages staff to make use of AI to perform duties. He wrote that each crew ought to “reveal why they can’t get what they need finished utilizing AI” earlier than asking for extra assets or further human staff.
“Utilizing AI successfully is now a elementary expectation of everybody at Shopify,” Lutke said, per screenshots of the memo he posted on X. The put up has drawn greater than 2.6 million views.
Shopify, with a market worth of over $100 billion on the time of writing, supplies small companies a platform to promote merchandise on-line. Clients can construct on-line shops and promote merchandise on websites like TikTok and YouTube. The corporate, which was founded in 2006, hosts over 5.5 million energetic on-line shops and made $8.88 billion in revenue in 2024, a 24% year-over-year enhance.
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Lutke wrote within the memo that he had seen staff multiply their efforts and use AI “to get 100X the work finished.” He requested staff to experiment with AI accessible internally, together with Microsoft Copilot AI chatbot and Anthropic’s Claude code helper.
Lutke additionally requested staff to consider how their crew would look with the addition of autonomous AI agents, which may perform complicated duties like looking the online with out human help. Their concepts for AI brokers may result in “actually enjoyable discussions and initiatives,” he wrote.
Lutke is implementing AI experimentation throughout Shopify, writing within the memo that Shopify would add questions on AI use to its efficiency and peer opinions.
“AI will completely change Shopify, our work, and the remainder of our lives,” Lutke wrote. “Our job is to determine what entrepreneurship appears to be like like in a world the place AI is universally accessible.”
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In September, Shopify reported that half of its retailers deliberate to make use of AI instruments like Shopify Magic, an AI picture editor and author that the corporate launched in January 2024.
Shopify has made reductions to its workforce over the previous two years, although the modifications haven’t been attributed to AI. In December 2022, the corporate had 11,600 employees in comparison with 8,100 in December 2024. Shopify laid off 10% of its workforce in July 2022, or about 1,000 staff, and 20% in May 2023.
Enterprise Insider reported in January that the corporate had quietly let go of about a dozen staff through the month.
