AI Now Or Get Left Behind: Shopify’s New Reality
Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke lays out a groundbreaking AI-first mandate—transforming company culture, workflows, and the future of entrepreneurship.
💬 Here are our quick CONVERSATION STARTERS this week:
What does the memo say and what does it mean for the industry?
What have other tech leaders said about AI as a internal cultural shift?
Shopify’s memo from the future
In a memo titled “AI usage is now a baseline expectation,” Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke has laid out his vision for artificial intelligence.
The memo was first leaked in the press earlier this month and later circulated via X by Lütke himself.
What does the memo say and what does it mean for the industry?
AI is now core to Shopify’s mission: AI is transforming entrepreneurship and work itself—Shopify must be the best platform for future businesses by embracing AI at every level.
AI use is a baseline expectation: Reflexive and skillful AI usage is no longer optional; it’s required for all employees, including leadership.
AI proficiency will impact performance reviews: Learning to use AI effectively is a key skill and will be included in peer and performance evaluations.
Get Stuff Done (GSD) projects must start with AI: AI should drive the prototype phase of all GSD projects to accelerate learning and development.
AI first, headcount second: Before asking for more resources, teams must explore how AI and autonomous agents can solve the problem.
We’re learning together: Everyone is encouraged to experiment, share wins and lessons, and help shape Shopify’s future in an AI-driven world.
So, obviously, we decided to ask AI and AI likes it!
“From an AI perspective, this memo is a bold, forward-thinking directive that recognizes both the current and future transformative power of artificial intelligence,” OpenAI’s ChatGPT wrote.
According to ChatGPT itself, this is what stands out:
“It’s a strong cultural signal as Tobi [I like that ChatGPT mentions Shopify’s CEO by first name] isn’t just suggesting AI adoption—he’s mandating it. That sets a high bar and sends a clear message: if you want to thrive at Shopify, AI literacy is table stakes. It’s rare to see this level of top-down cultural commitment.”
“There's a healthy balance here with a clear human-AI collaboration emphasis: AI is a multiplier of talent, not a replacement.”
“This is one of the most comprehensive and compelling internal AI memos I’ve seen. It’s not just about tech—it’s about culture, mindset, and redefining what productivity looks like. If Shopify executes well, this approach could serve as a blueprint for other companies navigating the AI shift.”
Anthropic’s Claude also seems to like the memo:
“From my perspective, this memo represents one of the more sophisticated organizational approaches to AI integration I've seen. It balances urgency with support (providing access to tools, encouraging knowledge sharing) while addressing the fundamental reality that AI competency is rapidly becoming a dividing line between high-performing and stagnant organizations.”
“The most thought-provoking element is the ‘Red Queen’ race concept—the idea that continuous improvement at an accelerating pace is necessary just to maintain position. This frames AI not as a one-time adaptation but as an ongoing evolution that will require sustained commitment.”
What have other tech leaders said about AI as a internal cultural shift?
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang
NVIDIA is embedding AI across its operations to redefine the nature of work and enhance productivity. Jensen Huang emphasized the transformative impact of AI:
“AI is not going to take your job. The person who uses AI is going to take your job.”
He also highlighted the company's vision for AI integration:
“We will one day have 50,000 employees and over 100 million AI assistants.”
NVIDIA is actively incorporating AI into its core processes, such as chip design and supply chain management, to capture and preserve institutional knowledge. Huang believes this approach will ensure that valuable insights remain within the company, even as the workforce evolves.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman
Microsoft is embedding AI across all facets of its operations, emphasizing a transformative impact on workplace culture. Satya Nadella stated:
“We are rapidly infusing AI across every layer of the tech stack and for every role and business process to drive productivity gains for our customers.”
Mustafa Suleyman highlighted the evolving human-AI collaboration:
“In 10 to 15 years, professionals will likely manage AI agents in a collaborative, symbiotic relationship.”
Google CEO Sundar Pichai
Google is undergoing a cultural transformation by integrating AI into its core operations. Sundar Pichai emphasized the significance of AI:
“AI is the most profound technology humanity is working on. More profound than fire, electricity, or anything that we have done in the past.”
He also noted the company's strategic focus:
“We continue to invest responsibly in our data centers and compute to support this new wave of growth in AI-powered services for us and for our customers.”
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy
Amazon is fostering a culture that embraces AI as a central component of its future. Andy Jassy articulated this vision:
“Generative AI may be the largest technology transformation since the cloud (which itself, is still in the early stages), and perhaps since the Internet.”
He also highlighted the company's approach:
“At the core of staying successful and resilient, the company relies on its five key principles, which include hiring builders who push boundaries, focusing on customer problems, and building foundational tools to accelerate innovation.”
Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Meta is integrating AI to reshape its internal culture and boost employee engagement. Mark Zuckerberg stated:
“We’re going to play an important and unique role in the industry in bringing these capabilities to billions of people in new ways that other people aren’t going to do.”
The company is encouraging employees to experiment with AI tools, including conversational agents and productivity assistants, to enhance their work experience.
As usual, we love to see what the Substack community, experts, and creators have to say… So many interesting reads!
- in Notes: “The bigger challenge is for the Shopify CEO to demonstrate why anyone would want to work for him.”
- in AI Changes Everything: “One trailblazing CEO’s memo doesn’t mean the entire world will be on AI soon, but AI adoption uptake has been phenomenal. In the AI era, most jobs will be AI-related, because people in all fields will use AI to be more productive.”
- in FullStack HR: “This is the first wave and it won’t be the last. As CEOs realize AI is not just an IT topic but a company-wide productivity lever, more leaders will push for broad adoption. Whether this approach is right or wrong isn't the point. What matters is that HR must be prepared with a clear stance: How do we guide ethical adoption? What skills need to be built? How do we support people through this shift? The sooner we hasve a position and a plan the more credibility and influence it will have as this trend accelerates.”
- in Metaphors Are Lies: “The CEO of Shopify is not making a business decision. He is making an ideological driven choice. He is trying to force the world to bend to his preconceived notion of how it should be rather than how it is.”
- in GAI Insights: “This exemplifies what CEO leadership looks like in the Age of AI.”
- in Enterprise AI Trends: “I believe the timing and tone of the memo have everything to do with the looming recession—and Tobi wanted to jump the gun with his AI mandate. I expect other CEOs to follow suit in the coming weeks and months.”
- in her Substack: “Evaluating whether AI can complete certain tasks before hiring humans will soon become standard practice across companies. But I'm curious what Shopify's AI training programs look like. Who will be in charge of evaluating employees’ AI skills at Shopify? Managers? Who might still be learning AI themselves? And how do you standardize this when AI's usefulness varies so much by job function?”
- in Mike’s Newsletter: “This isn’t about tools. It’s about behavior. Every project begins with AI. Every prototype should be AI-augmented. […] It’s a shift from platform thinking to augmentation thinking; from exposing our work to target teams to explosing our work to target machines. If a machine can't figure it out alone, then your work doesn't count.”
- in their homonymous Substack newsletter: “This memo arrives at a time when AI is no longer viewed as a “tool” but a foundational capability - similar to how cloud computing or mobile development once were. What Lutke articulates is not just a shift in tooling, but a systemic redefinition of how work gets done at Shopify, from individual contributor roles to strategic decision-making.”
- in pascal's notes: “So if you haven’t done so already, then block a big junk of time as soon as you can (and with a regular cadence) to look into ‘how can we get better at every part of our business / our product with AI’.”
- in Notes: “I do think AI is a great tool, but trying to force it is probably not the best way to get productivity gains. Productivity is like water, it takes the path of least resistance.”
- in Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication: “This is a position much more progressive than we see in most organizations, and there are several points in Lütke’s thinking of which other leaders might take note.”
- in AI Adopters Club: “[H]e wasn't just setting company policy. He was drawing a line in the sand for the entire e-commerce ecosystem.”
- in Notes: “AI adoption through existential threat just guarantees anxious workers copy-pasting superficial prompts to tick the ‘ai box’ in quarterly reviews. Real innovation needs authentic creativity & vulnerability, which stem from psychological safety, autonomy, and genuine curiosity, not a guaranteed flood of performative bs to keep your job.”
- in Hybrid Horizons: Exploring Human-AI Collaboration: “In sum, Shopify's mandate isn't just a productivity hack – it's a cultural shift. It blends a hard-nosed insistence on efficiency (do more with AI before asking for more people) with a rallying cry for innovation and learning. Shopify is saying: we're all in on AI and we expect you to be too. As Lütke put it, ‘AI will totally change Shopify, our work, and the rest of our lives’. This is as much about seizing opportunity as it is about cutting costs. Which raises the question: while tech companies race ahead with AI-first cultures, where does that leave the world of higher education?”
- in their homonymous Substack newsletter: “Expect more companies to follow suit and more heated debate on the future of jobs.”
- in Notes: “Shopify just told its teams: if you’re not using AI, you’re already behind. Most companies will wait too long to say the same.”
- in Notes: “Make sure you're future-proofing your job.”
- in Notes: “Most companies talk about using AI.
Shopify just made it mandatory.”
Shopify just made “you’re not using AI?” the new “you’re still using Internet Explorer?” Brutal…