Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke Shares Internal Memo to Over 8,000 Employees
Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke shared an internal memo on X, addressed to over 8,000 employees. This memo, intended for internal use, urged Shopify employees to effectively and frequently utilize artificial intelligence. However, it quickly sparked controversy due to a particularly blunt statement: he required colleagues to demonstrate why they cannot accomplish their tasks using AI before asking for more headcount and resources.
Tobi Lütke clearly expressed as the CEO of a tech company that AI has the potential to replace any position, and employees must prove their value and familiarity with AI tools; otherwise, the future will entail downsizing rather than hiring.
After the internal memo was leaked online, Tobi Lütke noted that it led to many misunderstandings. In order to avoid misinterpretation and prevent panic among employees and the public, he specifically reposted the full text and explained that his intention was to emphasize the importance of using AI tools.
Shopify’s Application Plugins and AI Technology
Tobi Lütke stated that he uses a variety of AI tools for presentations and speeches, noting that we are now in an era where entrepreneurs are emerging constantly, and he anticipates more use cases will arise in the future.
Shopify is a Canadian B2B cross-border e-commerce company that allows merchants to build e-commerce websites, find suppliers, create online advertisements, utilize AI assistants, and generate coupons and data reports through its value-added paid services. These services are gradually replacing many labor-intensive jobs due to the rapid development of AI, especially as AI agents can almost entirely replace online customer service personnel in e-commerce.
Shopify employees must clearly understand the value AI can bring to customers; they must first know how to use AI tools and self-reflect on why their jobs do not require AI or why they don’t consider using AI before requesting personnel or resources from the company.
Shopify Employees Need to Learn to Use AI to Complete Their Work
Tobi Lütke believes that Shopify employees must integrate artificial intelligence into their work, as the use of AI will become a key factor in their performance evaluations. This is the overwhelming message conveyed in the employee memo. Shopify employees must be familiar with AI tools such as Microsoft Copilot, Anthropic’s Claude, and Cursor. Lütke emphasized that merely using these AI tools is not enough; to ensure Shopify does not fall behind, effective use of AI is a fundamental expectation for every employee. Shopify’s internal case management tool GSD will also utilize AI to track the progress and status of each project.
Introduction to Shopify
Tobi Lütke and Scott Lake co-founded Shopify (Shopify Inc. Nasdaq: SHOP) in 2006. Shopify is a Canadian cross-border e-commerce company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. Originally, Shopify started as an online ski equipment store called Snowdevil, created by Tobi Lütke himself. Dissatisfied with existing e-commerce systems, the engineer decided to develop a new e-commerce platform.
Lütke built the Snowdevil online store using the open-source web application framework Ruby on Rails, launching it after two months of development. In June 2006, the platform was launched under the name Shopify. Shopify developed an open-source template language called Liquid, written in Ruby.
In June 2009, Shopify launched its API platform and App Store. The API allowed developers to create applications for Shopify online stores, which they could then sell to customers in the Shopify App Store.
Shopify offers a one-stop service that includes setting up e-commerce websites, sales, POS payments, digital marketing, shipping, and warehousing. Shopify can also assist merchants in finding suppliers and developing their own products. As of 2024, Shopify has 5.6 million active stores in over 175 countries and regions.
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