Shopify CEO relies on AI instead of new hires and more resources
The software manufacturer Shopify is focusing entirely on AI. If you want more resources or new hires, you have to explain why AI is not enough, says the CEO.
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The German-Canadian CEO of Shopify has the “fundamental expectation” that his employees use AI and also wants them to first explain why the new technology cannot perform tasks for which someone is to be hired. This emerges from an internal memo that Tobias Lütke himself has made public. He does not consider it practical to pull out of learning how to use AI and deploying it in his area at the e-commerce software provider: “You are welcome to try, but to be honest, I don't see it working today – and certainly not tomorrow.” This would only result in stagnation, and stagnation is failure in slow motion.
20 to 40 percent growth, “not terribly ambitious”
What has been observed so far is that the use of AI technology has to be learned carefully, by using it a lot. The call to play around with it was right, but not decisive enough. Employees in particular, who had already done ten times as much as they thought possible, would become even more productive thanks to AI, writes Lütke. He has seen many of these people tackle impossible problems and, thanks to “thoughtful and brilliant use of AI”, they have “achieved a hundred times more work”. If they continue to work like this, the company could grow by 20 to 40 percent per year. And that is no longer really ambitious.
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Founded in Canada in 2006, the company offers, among other things, proprietary software that small and medium-sized companies can use to create online stores. The main market is North America. After its IPO in 2015, Shopify experienced rapid growth, fueled by the online retail trend in 2020 and 2021, which were dominated by coronavirus. After that, things didn't look so good on the stock market, with several large waves of layoffs following since 2022. Most recently, Shopify announced at the end of 2024 that the number of employees had been reduced by 200 to 8100.
(mho)
