This isn’t about whether Shopify is a good investment or not, it’s about the trend that companies wanting to get/retain an edge need to leverage AI as much as possible:
Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke said there’s a “fundamental expectation” that Shopify employees are using AI in their day-to-day work. “What would this area look like if autonomous AI agents were already part of the team?” Lutke wrote to employees.
This extends not just to doing the work, but also in hiring practices:
Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke told employees in a memo that they’ll have to show jobs can’t be done by artificial intelligence before asking for more headcount and resources.
So, for Shopify at least (and probably countless companies all over the world), AI is no longer a nice to have but a mandatory part of running an efficient operation. Using AI to assist not just coding, but marketing, advertising, testing, support, accounting, compliance, etc. is no longer an advantage, but a necessary part of business if you want to thrive, much less survive. Not using AI would be like building cars without robotics 30 years ago.
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Hmmm…Shop is one of my main investments, has been for a longish time now. Not sure how I feel about this…
…what I think I know at this time is…AI can only suggest things, not actually implement stuff? Also, the stuff that is suggested can be WILDLY wrong so would need constant oversight.
How would this make my SHOP investment worth more? What exactly could AI even do that would replace a human? Compiling research or data into summaries and sound bites, but there still needs to be a human right?
With developing code, who would validate the code, who would test the code, who would implement the code. If they turn it all over to AI, then who will back out bad code and restore databases when things crash hard?
This makes me nervous because I really do not see how this actually makes the company stronger/faster/better especially if they get rid of humans in the process.
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Here’s a short video from a regular guy using Microsoft CoPilot to code. Worth a watch just to see how it works:
My take is that CoPilot enables programmers to be more productive, which means you don’t need to hire as many. The code it generates isn’t always perfect, sure, but overall it seems a big help.
I’ll bet AI can help in many business areas. I took the hiring aspect to be “be sure you’re as efficient as you can be with the headcount you have before asking for more.”
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