Shopify announced a series of AI-focused updates on Monday, including the early release of their AI chatbot "Sidekick." Sidekick is designed to support merchants by assisting with tasks such as creating discount codes, generating store reports, or suggesting blog post ideas.
While this may sound like typical AI chatbot functionality, if Shopify continues to tailor the chatbot's features based on merchant needs, it could potentially become a useful way to obtain help or support.
Vanessa Lee, Shopify's Vice President of Product, stated in an interview that although Sidekick has been rolled out to thousands of Shopify stores, it is currently only available to merchants with English-speaking stores in North America. However, if you wish to try Sidekick, you can sign up for the waitlist on the official website. Lee mentioned that the company hopes to expand Sidekick to other languages and regions as well.
In addition to Sidekick, Shopify has made other AI-focused announcements. For example, AI-based product categorization can save merchants a significant amount of time. When building product listings, Shopify's technology can automatically suggest appropriate categorizations to make your listings more discoverable.
Furthermore, Shopify has introduced another AI tool that provides suggested replies for customer chats coming through the Shopify inbox. Currently, these replies are merely suggestions, and merchants must finalize and actually send them. Lee indicated that Shopify is open to the possibility of AI chatbots conversing with customers on behalf of merchants, but for now, the company has chosen to keep human involvement until they are very confident that no issues will arise.
Key Points:
- Shopify has launched the AI chatbot "Sidekick" to support merchants.
- Sidekick is currently limited to merchants with English-speaking stores in North America.
- Shopify has also introduced other AI-focused updates, such as AI-based product categorization and AI tools for suggested customer chat replies.