Shopify offers its merchants many new AI-powered tools designed to help improve the online shopping experience for their customers. This includes an AI store builder for users to set up storefronts using a single prompt, and an AI generator for users to create elements (such as banners) without knowing how to code.
The platform has upgraded Sidekick, an AI commerce assistant with new voice chat and screen sharing capabilities.
These updates were announced on Wednesday on the launch day of Shopify’s Edition, a two-person announcement from the company that will showcase recent changes to the platform.
The goal of AI Store Builder is to quickly create the foundation for your website. This will increase the time for personalization. To use the tool, users must first enter a prompt describing their brand. For example, “tennis gear and stylish athletes.” Shopify’s AI generates storefronts that can be released immediately, allowing merchants to manually customize the store within their editors.
Shopify also introduced a new public theme called “Horizon” to Theme Store, a marketplace for downloading pre-designed templates.
Horizon includes built-in AI to help merchants adjust their designs as they wish. It is also the first theme to include “theme blocks.” This is basically a building block that merchants can use to customize the appearance of their online store without touching the code.
These theme blocks can also be further customized with the help of AI. For example, if a merchant wants a text and animation banner, it will explain it, share images for inspiration, or generate code to copy it to the editor. You can also generate images.
Additionally, users can now engage in voice chat with Sidekick. For example, if merchants are confused about tariffs (which is currently a hot topic for retailers), Sidekick will lead you to a tariff guide that offers fees for different types of products. Users can also screen shares in SideKick to navigate features such as finding settings.
In addition to these new features, Sidekick is now available on the Sopyify mobile app.
According to the company, Sidekick was widely deployed to all merchants in December 2024. Monthly users have more than doubled since the beginning of 2025, a spokesman told TechCrunch.
Shopify’s ongoing investment in AI should not be unexpected. In a recent note to staff from CEO Tobi Lütke, he suggested that AI might help the company maintain a smaller workforce.
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