Shopify CEO tells employees to show them why AI can't do the job before asking for more headcount



Tobias Lütke , CEO of Canadian e-commerce company Shopify , said in a memo to employees that before asking for more headcount or resources, teams must show why they can't do what they want with AI. Lütke is enthusiastic about using AI in his work and says he plans to include how he uses AI in employee performance evaluations.



Shopify CEO: Prove AI can't do jobs before asking for more headcount
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/07/shopify-ceo-prove-ai-cant-do-jobs-before-asking-for-more-headcount.html

At the end of March 2025, CEO Lütke sent a memo to employees encouraging them to use AI in their work. Since the contents of this memo were leaked by someone with some malicious intent, CEO Lütke posted the full text of the memo on X (formerly Twitter).

The memo states that 'reflexive use of AI is now a basic expectation at Shopify,' and CEO Lütke has been promoting the usefulness of AI in his weekly videos, podcasts, speeches, etc. CEO Lütke said, 'AI is the most rapid change to how we work in my career,' and has already been impressed by AI's ability to augment our skills and technologies and fill in the gaps.

CEO Lütke claims that AI is a 'great colleague' that can contribute 10 times more than previously thought possible, and points out that the performance of AI itself will also grow 10 times over time. 'I've seen many people reflexively and brilliantly use AI to do impossible tasks that they would not have chosen to do before, and get 100 times the work done,' said CEO Lütke.

Lütke argued that Shopify is a company that grows 20-40% year-on-year, and that in order for employees and executives, including himself, to continue working for the company, they must grow at least that much each year. This goal sounds daunting, but it is not impossible if AI can be used, and it is in line with Shopify's core values of 'being a constant learner' and 'surviving change.'



For CEO Lütke, the effective use of AI is the baseline he expects from everyone at Shopify. 'AI is a tool of every business today, and it's only going to get more important. Frankly, I don't think you can escape learning the skills to apply AI to your technology,' he said, warning that without AI, companies will stagnate and fail.

As Shopify continues to promote the use of AI as a company, it plans to add surveys about how to use AI to employee performance reviews and peer evaluations. Although learning about AI is at the employee's own risk, Shopify has an environment where employees can access a variety of cutting-edge AI tools, and AI tools such as Microsoft Copilot, Cursor , and Claude are pre-prepared for developers. In addition, there are many places to share developed AI prompts on Slack and other platforms.

Lütke also told employees, 'Before asking for more staff or resources, your team must show why AI can't do what you want to do. What would this area look like if an autonomous AI agent was already part of the team? Asking this question leads to some really fun discussions and projects.' He urged employees to consider using AI before asking for more staff.

According to Shopify's annual report (PDF file) released at the end of 2024, Shopify's total number of employees decreased from 8,300 in 2023 to 8,100. Shopify laid off 14% of its employees in 2022 and is continuing to reduce its workforce, including laying off 20% of its employees in 2023.

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in Software,   Web Service, Posted by log1h_ik