Shopify’s AI Journey
The story of Shopify’s AI transformation isn’t just about technology. It’s about bold leadership, human potential, and the willingness to take existential bets. While many companies tiptoed into AI with pilot programs and cautious guardrails, Shopify leapt headfirst, reshaping not only its workflows but its very identity. Their journey offers a playbook for what it means to embrace AI not as a tool, but as a catalyst for reinvention.
At the heart of this shift was a defining moment. Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke released a now-famous internal memo, later shared publicly on X, declaring that “reflexive AI usage is now a baseline expectation” for every employee. The memo elevated AI from an optional tool to a company-wide standard, and it reset how Shopify approached work, hiring, and leadership itself. As Lütke emphasized that mastering these tools takes deliberate practice, experimentation, and collaboration—not just casual use.
“Learning to use AI well is an unobvious skill.”
I was struck by how this memo became a cultural accelerant, and my impression was reinforced by a recent First Round Capital article that captured Shopify’s transformation in vivid detail. Together, they highlight the depth of the company’s commitment and the deliberate choices that set it apart.
While most companies cautiously tested AI, Shopify made an existential bet: that unfettered access and bold experimentation were the only path forward. They invested in unlimited tool access, radical transparency, and unconventional hiring, all before knowing whether it would work. Instead of restricting employees to a handful of approved use cases, they encouraged broad exploration. Instead of waiting for certainty, they created space for risk-taking.
The memo crystallized this approach. Going forward, teams must now demonstrate why a job can’t be done by AI before requesting new headcount. AI usage has even become part of performance reviews, embedding it into daily accountability. This is not AI on the margins—it’s AI as a baseline operating principle.
The results have been more than productivity gains. It’s a wholesale rethinking of how Shopify leads, listens, hires, connects, sells, and builds. By giving people permission to try, fail, and discover, Shopify unlocked new ways of working that might never have surfaced in a more cautious environment. The company didn’t just adopt AI, they used it to reinvent themselves.
What makes this story especially compelling is the role humans play at every step. AI wasn’t treated as a replacement for talent, but as a force multiplier. Leadership placed its bets on people: their creativity, resilience, and ability to adapt. They trusted employees to push boundaries, and the memo made that trust actionable. It framed AI not as a threat, but as a shared tool to elevate collective potential.
Shopify isn’t just betting on AI, they’re betting on human potential and our desire to shape the world we want to live in. That’s what powers movements. That’s how change happens. And for any company navigating this era of transformation, perhaps the most important lesson is this: the boldest bet you can make isn’t simply on the tools, it’s on your people.