Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke disclosed the leaking of an internal memo on AI on April 7, 2025, by posting on X with a provocative headline: “Reflexive AI usage is now a baseline expectation at Shopify.”
“Our task here at Shopify is to make our software unquestionably the best canvas on which to develop the best businesses of the future,” Lütke wrote. “For that we need to be absolutely ahead.”
In keeping with Shopify’s core values to “be a constant learner” and “thrive on change,” every employee is now “expected to use AI effectively,” Lütke explained, adding that “brilliant” usage of AI, he added, is already helping high-achievers accomplish “100x the work.” That includes, apparently, the localization team.
One commenter on X asked Lütke for some examples of the “tasks in Shopify […] seeing ~100x speedups?” “[T]ranslations, large scale refractors. Lots of internal processes,” Lütke replied.
What exactly this means for Shopify’s in-house localization team is unclear, at least to outside observers. (Shopify’s Careers page states that the business has about 8,000 employees in 175 countries.)
According to LinkedIn, the company currently still employs numerous workers with a variety of localization-related titles, from Localization Technical Program Manager to Globalization Leader.
One role, however, is notably absent: Head of Localization. Speaking at SlatorCon Remote November 2023, then-Head of Localization Giulia Greco described a company culture with a growth- and training-focused mindset, expressed as “a little bit of pressure” for employees to continue learning and improving each year.
Lütke echoed that expectation in his X post, writing that employees are “welcome” to try opting out of learning to work with AI, “but I want to be honest I cannot see this working out today, and definitely not tomorrow. Stagnation is almost certain, and stagnation is slow-motion failure.”
‘Really Fun Discussions’
While Lütke’s post did not explicitly address possible layoffs, for the localization team in particular or Shopify in general, the company does seem poised to freeze hiring.
“Before asking for more Headcount and resources, teams must demonstrate why they cannot get what they want done using AI,” Lütke wrote. “What would this area look like if autonomous AI agents were already part of the team? This question can lead to really fun discussions and projects.”
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Greco, for her part, appears to have left Shopify in early 2025. Without naming AI, she shared in a February 2025 Bureau Works podcast episode the thought process behind her decision.
“[One] really hard thing of being in a position of leadership is the cognitive dissonance that you sometimes feel when your values are no longer aligned with the values of the company you’re working with or the values of the leadership of the moment,” Greco said.
“The question is not, ‘Can I do it?’ It’s actually, ‘Do I want to do it?’ […] ‘Do I want to work this way?’” she continued. “When that answer is ‘No,’ then you know that it’s time to move on.”