"Hire an AI before you hire a human" - Shopify CEO sets the new standard

I'll be honest, I do spend time on X. Mainly to follow people in AI though. There I saw a leaked internal memo from Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke. A memo that went viral in these circles, and not without reason.

The document sets a radically new standard: "Using AI effectively is now a fundamental expectation of everyone at Shopify." Not just developers or analysts - everyone.

As I scrolled through the memo in my office in Amsterdam, I felt a strange mix of confirmation and urgency.

What I've been telling my clients for months is now firmly confirmed by the CEO of a company with $8.8 billion in revenue: AI is no longer optional, it's a necessity.

The memo ends with a warning that lingered in my head: "Standing still is failing in slow motion. If you're not climbing, you're sliding backwards."

The memo: a new era for organizations

What makes this memo so special? Lütke transforms AI from an experimental project into a fundamental business value.

The key points:

10 key insights from the memo

A tech analyst who reviewed the memo shared ten crucial insights that perfectly summarize its impact:

It's not just Shopify

Shopify is not alone. Other leading CEOs are taking similar steps:

What these leaders understand is that AI is much more than tools and apps. It's not a sidecar of business strategy. It IS the business strategy.

Implications for your organization

At NinA AI Agency we already see this shift among forward-thinking clients.

Just last week I sat with a client in the financial sector who had an entire team performing manual checks.

With AI they can automate that process by 20 to 80%, allowing their people to focus on more complex tasks where human insight is irreplaceable.

What can we learn from Lütke's approach?

The "self-driving" enterprise

We are rapidly approaching an era where leading companies will function as autonomous enterprises - data-driven, AI-orchestrated, highly automated and continuously learning.

This may sound like the future, but companies like Shopify are showing it's already reality.

They're creating organizations where:

A client of ours in e-commerce recently transformed their customer service with AI. Instead of hiring new employees to keep up with growing demand, they implemented AI agents that can handle 70% of routine inquiries.

Their human team members now only handle the more complex cases, leading to higher customer satisfaction and lower costs.

Conclusion

What Shopify has shown is that the road to this AI-driven future isn't paved with expensive platforms or massive personnel changes - it's built by creating a work culture where AI is part of every project, every role and every decision.

Lütke's memo is more than an internal guideline. It's a blueprint for how modern organizations must operate to remain competitive. The central insight? "Hire an AI before you hire a human."

This doesn't mean people become less important - quite the opposite.

It means people can focus on what they do best: creative thinking, complex problem solving and strategic decision making. AI takes over the routine work, so human talent can shine.

The reality is clear: organizations that treat AI as a way of life will thrive. Those that relegate it to the IT department or treat it as an experimental project will fall behind.

What's your vision on this? Is your organization ready to treat AI as a fundamental business value? Or is AI still in its infancy at your company? And perhaps more importantly: is your organization willing to embrace the principle "hire an AI before you hire a human"?

Until next time!

Olaf Lemmens