Shopify CEO says no new hires without proof AI can’t do the job

Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke sent a memo to employees saying that before they ask for more headcount or resources, teams must show why they “cannot get what they want done using AI,” as reported by CNBC.

“What would this area look like if autonomous AI agents were already part of the team? This question can lead to really fun discussions and projects,” Lutke says in the memo, which he posted on X. The memo was sent late last month, CNBC says.

The broader memo is about how “reflexive AI usage” is a “baseline expectation” at the company. In it, Lütke talks about how AI has been “the most rapid shift to how work is done that I’ve seen in my career” and that “using AI well is a skill that needs to be carefully learned by… using it a lot.”

Using AI effectively is “now a fundamental expectation of everyone at Shopify,” according to Lütke. AI usage questions will also be added to “our performance and peer review questionnaire.”

“What we need to succeed is our collective sum total skill and ambition at applying our craft, multiplied by AI, for the benefit of our merchants,” Lütke says.