Shopify empowers engineers to innovate in AI

Shopify's COO, Jess Hertz, discusses how the company is leveraging AI to transform e-commerce. Shopify has experienced five consecutive quarters of growth exceeding 30%, with significant contributions from AI-driven initiatives. Hertz highlights that 90% of Shopify's quarterly revenue comes from merchants with over a year on the platform, underscoring the strength of its core business. Meanwhile, AI is expanding the company's potential, with early signs that Sidekick, Shopify's AI-powered commerce agent, is boosting sales for merchants. Catalog, Shopify's product layer for agentic commerce, is also increasing conversion rates, with double the performance when using catalog data compared to scraped data. Hertz acknowledges the challenge of building an AI infrastructure layer amid competition from platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini, emphasizing Shopify's strategic position in the evolving agentic shopping landscape. Shopify, which powers over 14% of online shopping, is investing heavily in AI, allowing engineers to experiment freely while other businesses struggle with ROI concerns. The company is positioning itself to lead the agentic commerce revolution, with its infrastructure enabling products to be discovered and purchased by AI. Hertz notes that while agentic GMV remains small, it is growing rapidly, signaling a shift in the e-commerce landscape driven by AI innovation.