We have been saying at Fintech.ca for years now that A.I. is taking over the sector. Examples are legion.
Aligned with this trend, Shopify emphasizes the salience of artificial intelligence as a component of the Ottawa company’s essence.
“I can’t actually think of any corner of the internet that will benefit more from AI than the pursuit of people building and growing their own businesses,” believes Tobi Lütke, the Chief Executive Officer of Shopify.
“I’ve been part of the technology industry since the mid-nineties,” continues Lütke. “I have never seen anything like AI.”
But is the forecast one of doom and gloom? Not at all. According to the CEO, AI “will be an unbelievable boon to entrepreneurship.”
At Shopify, part of the boon hails from Sidekick, a new feature the commerce titan unveiled this month.
As one might garner from the name, Sidekick is an AI-enabled commerce assistant.
“Every hero needs a sidekick,” Shopify says.
Sidekick has been designed to interact with business owners across various expertise levels, aiding in tasks ranging from setting up discounts for holiday sales, redesigning a store to suit seasons, providing insights into products, or guiding an email campaign.
Sidekick is the centrepiece of Shopify Magic, which we suspect is what Lütke earlier referred to as his company’s “main quest”: a suite of all-new commerce-specific tools whose DNA is AI.
These features will include “instantly generated blog posts” for any idea, as well as automatically generated emails “with compelling subject lines, engaging content, and recommended send time for optimal performance.”
Advancements in AI are “accelerating the pace of change all around us,” according to the Canadian fintech.
“Already, AI is changing how customers shop and businesses operate,” Shopify notes. “We see massive upsides to AI in the hands of business owners from entrepreneur to enterprise, and we’re filling this unmet need with infinite potential.”
By integrating AI into Shopify’s backend, “We’re keeping businesses on the cutting edge and helping them thrive in today’s competitive market,” the company stated.
Shopify also recently launched Shopify Credit. Developed in collaboration with Stripe and Visa, Shopify Credit aims to address pain points of business credit cards.
According to the company, the card scales alongside a merchant’s business, with credit limits based on their sales, not credit history.
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