Shopify Boosts AI Commitment with Tools for Online Store Creation and Shopping Assistants
TORONTO — In their most recent wave of product advancements, Shopify Inc. is leveraging artificial intelligence to assist both merchants and developers in building an array of tools ranging from e-commerce platforms to shopping aids.
Many of the 150 product releases or improvements unveiled by the e-commerce software firm on Wednesday during its biannual Editions event revolve around technological advancements.
Shopify mentioned that these changes are part of a larger move towards what they call “declarative commerce,” where business owners just state their objectives, and AI takes care of everything else. This allows entrepreneurs to concentrate on innovation and expansion instead of dealing with complicated technology.
Several highly talked-about modifications focus on Sidekick, a feature launched in 2023 for certain merchant clients to inquire about their business processes.
With the chatbot now equipped with advanced reasoning capabilities, Shopify’s vice-president of product Vanessa Lee says merchants can turn to Sidekick with more practical questions like, “My sales dropped last month — what caused that?”
Subsequently, Sidekick will sift through the store’s analytics data, encompassing metrics such as sales numbers, past orders, product effectiveness, and buyer behavior trends. It will use this information to compute changes in sales volume and shifts in revenue across defined periods and provide segmented insights according to particular regions, consumer groups, or distribution platforms.
Lee mentioned that the aim is to generate information that precisely highlights what issues are present, enabling retailers to figure out how to improve their situation.
Should the merchant believe that offering discounts or running marketing campaigns is the solution, Sidekick can walk them through these steps. Alternatively, if expanding sales internationally or targeting fresh market segments is their aim, this tool also has the capability to set them up accordingly.
The Sidekick feature is getting an upgrade to include voice chat and screen sharing functionalities. This enhanced version could prove particularly useful for merchants looking for artwork. Additionally, the tool will soon offer image generation abilities, enabling users to input a description of a desired photograph and receive the corresponding image shortly thereafter.
Besides Sidekick, Shopify is integrating AI into its other applications as well. This allows merchants to enter just a few descriptive terms to quickly create complete online storefronts along with all associated imagery and content.
Developers earning income from selling tools integrated with Shopify’s platform will similarly benefit from AI advancements.
They can now create AI-driven shopping assistants that have immediate access to Shopify information. This feature is being developed using Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol, which serves as an open standard for linking AI helpers to the databases containing the relevant data.
For Shopify, developers can utilize external AI agents to effortlessly browse through product inventories, handle shopping carts, obtain customer orders, and fetch reliable store policies, thereby personalizing the interactions between support assistants and clients.
Rick Watson, who founded RMW Commerce Consulting, viewed these updates as evidence that Shopify is rapidly advancing with AI technology. However, he believes it may take several years before the firm truly begins to benefit significantly from innovations such as the model context protocol.
He believed that one of the main objectives behind numerous updates at Shopify was to make it unnecessary for merchants to purchase a content management system—software designed to help showcase, arrange, and adjust information on websites—thereby eliminating the requirement for deep technical expertise.
Watson stated in an email, “They aim for everyone and every team to handle the Shopify frontend effortlessly, without needing to incorporate extra software.”
A month following CEO Tobi Lütke informing his team at Shopify that AI represents a “basic requirement” for every employee—one that should permeate areas like performance evaluations and product creation—Shopify has announced new advancements in their artificial intelligence initiatives.
Shopify announced on Wednesday that they have revamped their point-of-sale application to streamline workflows and made improvements to their payment system. This allows sellers to manage sales across various global businesses using just one storefront.
This updates to payment processes eliminate redundant administrative systems and enable merchants to handle over 130 different currencies, allowing them to settle transactions in as many as eight. This shift helps reduce foreign exchange fees associated with payouts, refunds, chargebacks, and supplier payments.
Watson viewed the point-of-sale updates as a means for Shopify “to close the gap with more seasoned competitors.”
He remarked, ‘Although they are welcome, there isn’t anything groundbreaking here.’
The report from The Canadian Press was initially released on May 21, 2025.
Companies featured in this story include: (TSX:SHOP)
Tara Deschamps from The Canadian Press