Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke shared an internal memo laying out an aggressive AI plan for the company.
In it, he says before managers hire anyone new, they must prove that AI couldn’t do the job better.
Shopify’s attrition rate and its embrace of AI have coincided in recent years.
The CEO of Shopify is asking managers to prove that AI couldn’t do a better job before requesting to hire someone new.
In an internal memo titled “AI usage is now a baseline expectation,” Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke said that “using AI well is a skill that needs to be carefully learned” by “using it a lot,” and that AI usage is “now a fundamental expectation of everyone at Shopify.”
“Before asking for more Headcount and resources, teams must demonstrate why they cannot get what they want done using AI,” Lütke wrote in the memo that he posted on X after it was leaked. “What would this area look like if autonomous AI agents were already part of the team? This question can lead to really fun discussions and projects.”
Lütke added that AI usage questions will also be added to Shopify’s “performance and peer review questionnaire” and that employees will “have access to as much cutting edge AI tools as possible.”
“This applies to all of us, including me and the executive team,” Lütke wrote.
Shopify did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
In early 2023, the company began improving customer service levels by embracing generative AI to handle some tasks that support employees had previously done.
Later that year, it laid off 20% of its workforce, rescinded job offers for former interns, and sold its logistics business Deliverr, which it acquired in 2022 for $2.1 billion.
In 2024, the Shopify leadership announced a re-organization to fix the “unhealthy” ratio of managers to “crafters,” the company’s term for individual contributors.
In January 2025, the company quietly laid off employees in its support division, which troubleshoots issues for millions of merchants who use the platform to sell products.
On top of the six startups that Shopify acquired in 2024, in March, the company also bought Vantage Discovery, a startup that builds AI-powered search functions for retailers. The intelligent search platform is said to be able to bring a “Pinterest-like capability to any retailer” using generative AI.
“What we need to succeed is our collective sum total skill and ambition at applying our craft, multiplied by AI, for the benefit of our merchants,” Lutke said in the memo. “If you’re not climbing, you’re sliding.”
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