Shopify to launch AI assistant for merchants

CANADIAN e-commerce firm Shopify said on Wednesday (Jul 12) it would soon launch an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant for merchants on its platform, the latest technology company to roll out such a feature. The assistant, called Sidekick, would be embedded as a button on Shopify and answer merchant queries, including details about sales trends, CEO Tobi Lutke illustrated in a video posted on Twitter. Companies such as Alibaba Group Holding, Zoom Video Communications and Databricks have all launched AI assistants in the last few months following the massive jump in the use of OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT. The assistant can also help entrepreneurs update their stores on Shopify. For instance, it can apply discounts on all items on the website, if prompted to do so. The feature is “coming soon”, the video showed, without specifying the date when it would be rolled out. REUTERS