Shopify’s Leaked AI Memo: What’s Actually Going On?

💭 What This Means for Sales, and Team Culture: Our Take at Rev-Empire

The Shopify memo lays out a clear direction. AI is no longer an optional tool. It is becoming part of how companies operate at every level. We understand why this shift is happening. Many teams are already moving in this direction. What will matter is how the change is implemented.

Here are some observations from what we’ve seen across sales and growth teams already adapting to this new environment.

● Scaling is easier now, but focus is harder

AI makes it simple to create more content, send more messages, and build faster processes. That removes many traditional bottlenecks. But when it’s easy to do more, teams often struggle to stay focused. Activity increases, but quality doesn’t always follow. In sales, we’ve seen output double while conversion rates drop. That usually happens when decisions are based on capacity instead of clarity. Volume is only useful when it’s aligned with intent.

● Adoption is visible, but effectiveness is harder to measure

As AI becomes part of performance reviews, people begin to treat usage as a deliverable. The instinct becomes showing that they’re using the tools, even if the outcome is unclear. We’ve seen teams automate tasks that were already working fine, just to signal they are keeping up. Without clear examples of what good AI use looks like, effort ends up producing more activity but no improvement in results. Teams need more structure around why they are using these tools, not just when.

● Efficiency becomes the starting point, not the outcome

The memo suggests that teams must show why AI cannot handle a task before asking for more support. This encourages efficiency, but it also changes how work is approached. Instead of starting with what needs to be done, people start with what can be automated. That leads to roles being shaped around tools rather than outcomes. Some work loses visibility not because it lacks value, but because it doesn’t fit cleanly into an AI-first process.

● Teams are moving faster, but often without shared context

AI helps reduce time spent on research, writing, and admin. As a result, teams gain capacity, but at the same time, new gaps can appear. We’ve seen teams move quickly from idea to execution, only to realise later that core assumptions were missing. The work shipped faster, but without alignment. When tools remove friction, it becomes even more important to slow down where it matters. Speed without clarity usually leads to rework.

● The fundamentals of sales haven’t changed

AI is helpful for prep work, notes, and follow-ups. It improves the mechanics. But the actual work of selling is still driven by human understanding. The strongest reps don’t win because they send more. They win because they know when to pause, how to read a room, and how to handle silence. These are not edge cases. They are the core of good sales. If automation replaces the slower parts of selling, teams may get faster but not better.

We don’t see the memo as extreme. It reflects a practical need to stay efficient in a fast-moving market. But, efficiency is not the same as impact. A process that works on paper can still miss the point. This shift toward AI will only work if teams have room to question it. Not every task should be automated and not every success can be tied to a tool.

🔍 The Bottom Line

The memo is clear, and the direction is understandable. AI can absolutely help teams do better work. But this kind of shift doesn’t just affect tools. It affects how people work, how they feel about their work, and how their work is measured.

If AI becomes the first option, human input will always need to be defended. And not everything that matters can be defended with a metric.

We believe AI should support thoughtful work, not replace it. Sales, especially, is still about reading tone, noticing hesitation, and building trust one conversation at a time. These are skills AI can’t replicate. At least not yet.

As a conclusion, no doubt the teams that apply AI with clarity and keep human judgment at the center will move faster and make better decisions.