In a memo to employees, Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke made a bold change: “Before asking for more people and resources, teams must prove that they can’t do what they want to do with AI.” He shared the message publicly on social media. According to the entrepreneur, the question will lead to “interesting discussions and projects.”

In addition, the Shopify boss expects the company's employees to use AI in their daily work. He said he has seen many people use AI flexibly and brilliantly to solve unprecedented problems, helping to improve productivity up to 100 times. In fact, using AI will become a criterion for evaluating human resources, according to Lütke.

Shopify is a company that sells web-based software that helps retailers manage sales and operations.

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Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke "says no" to hiring new staff because of AI. Photo: Bloomberg

The new policy was introduced by Shopify CEO in the context of technology companies investing hundreds of billions of dollars in AI development this year. The company deployed a number of AI tools for sellers, including the Sidekick chatbot and the Shopify Magic automation toolkit.

At the same time, companies are also looking to save money in other areas, either by cutting unproductive projects or by laying off workers. About 152,000 jobs will be lost across 549 tech companies in 2024, according to layoff tracking website Layoffs.fyi.

According to the filing, Shopify employed 8,100 people as of the end of December 2024, down from 8,300 a year earlier. The Canadian company will eliminate 14% of its workforce in 2022 and 20% in 2023.

Increasing the use of AI, especially AI Agents, will help Shopify maintain a lean workforce. But it’s also a controversial topic, given widespread concerns about AI’s impact on jobs. A recent report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development estimates that AI will impact 40% of global jobs.

Lütke is not the only CEO looking to leverage AI to boost efficiency, however. Other tech leaders are on the same page. For example, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of fintech company Klarna, says Klarna’s AI chatbot is doing the work of 700 customer service agents. With AI, their workforce could be reduced from about 4,000 to 2,000.

(According to TechCrunch, The Verge)

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/sep-cong-nghe-my-chi-tuyen-nguoi-khi-ai-khong-the-dam-nhiem-cong-viec-2389041.html