{
  "id": 5015626,
  "title": "Shopify is giving its engineers free rein on AI. Here’s why",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/02/shopify-is-giving-its-engineers-free-rein-on-ai-heres-why",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-09-02T04:11:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Fast Company",
    "slug": "fast-company",
    "url": "https://www.fastcompany.com/91600204/shopify-is-giving-its-engineers-free-rein-on-ai-heres-why"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Shopify has given its engineers free rein on AI, and the results are impressive. The company's data reveals a new era of agentic shopping, where AI is transforming how products are discovered and purchased online. Shopify's COO, Jess Hertz, discussed the company's growth and the role of AI in this transformation.\n\nHertz highlighted that 90% of Shopify's quarterly revenue comes from merchants who have been on the platform for over a year, demonstrating the strength of the core business. However, AI is also expanding Shopify's upside, with early signs that the AI-powered commerce agent, Sidekick, is helping merchants sell more and increasing conversion rates.\n\nShopify is building the infrastructure layer necessary for AI commerce, including agentic storefront integrations with major AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot. The company believes that the complexity of managing various selling channels is both a challenge and a moat for Shopify. As the infrastructure for AI commerce becomes more scarce, Shopify's unified operating system and open commerce standards will help merchants manage these new technologies more effectively.\n\nShopify's engineers have been given the freedom to experiment with AI tokens, which the company sees as a healthy investment with a good return on investment (ROI). Despite concerns about the hidden costs of AI, Shopify's pragmatic approach ensures that engineers can access the best models for the best circumstances while monitoring costs and impact.",
  "summary": "For decades, e-commerce rewarded the biggest brands that could buy their way to the top of search results. AI is changing that. Shopify COO Jess Hertz shares what Shopify’s data reveals about the agentic shopping revolution in real time, and how the company is building the infrastructure layer that makes products discoverable and purchasable by AI. Plus, why Shopify’s engineers can spend freely…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}