Shopify CEO Tobi on How Personal AI Agents Will Make Money
Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke believes that monetizing personal AI agents won't rely on a 2% transaction cut, but will enter an era of "basis points." He proposes a "reverse money test": users are willing to pay an increasingly higher price to stop using their own Muse. The monetization method could be backend meter-style billing, or a cut of transaction volume, or both; he isn't worried, because there's a lot of room for agents to help people save money.
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View original postTobi Lütke on the AI agent revolution and future of Shopify @tobi on where agent commerce is headed, sci-fi becoming reality, and his GPU wine cellar. Why did Amazon block Meta's Muse but Shopify welcomed it? I sit down with Tobi in Toronto to discuss why the companies are taking different approaches to agents and how shopping changes when AI starts buying things on your behalf. He explains the early AI shopping behavior he’s seeing. We also get into why he thinks AI makes starting a business easier, the backlash against the technology, and why everyone will eventually have to embrace it to get ahead in their careers. We get into how AI agents will make money, who pays when they handle a purchase, and why advertising gets complicated when your assistant is supposed to work for you. We discuss his experience on Meta’s board and working with Mark Zuckerberg. Lütke also shares why he turned his wine cellar into a GPU server rack and how he uses his personal AI agent that runs entirely from his house. This is one of my favorite pods I've ever done. Timestamps: 00:00 Amazon blocks Muse 02:40 Shopify's approach to AI agents 07:00 How AI agents will change shopping 11:05 Sci-fi and tech optimism 17:57 Zero-sum thinking vs. abundance 21:20 AI backlash and the founder advantage 45:28 Building an AI-first Shopify 52:18 Who profits from agentic commerce? 01:03:22 How Shopify stays ahead 01:10:39 Advertising and discovery in the agent era 01:16:02 Rack, Cellar, and Claw Links: Spotify: https://t.co/dEn15RrP7B Substack: https://t.co/JxkbohU0qz YouTube: https://t.co/2DTtOZ64yN Apple Podcasts: https://t.co/fEI7x7IzlD This episode's presenting sponsor is @hyperagentapp Thanks to the show’s premiere sponsors: @Atlassian, @meetgranola, and @mercury
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Tobi Lütke on the AI agent revolution and future of Shopify @tobi on where agent commerce is headed, sci-fi becoming reality, and his GPU wine cellar. Why did Amazon block Meta's Muse but Shopify welcomed it? I sit down with Tobi in Toronto to discuss why the companies are taking different approaches to agents and how shopping changes when AI starts buying things on your behalf. He explains the early AI shopping behavior he’s seeing. We also get into why he thinks AI makes starting a business easier, the backlash against the technology, and why everyone will eventually have to embrace it to get ahead in their careers. We get into how AI agents will make money, who pays when they handle a purchase, and why advertising gets complicated when your assistant is supposed to work for you. We discuss his experience on Meta’s board and working with Mark Zuckerberg. Lütke also shares why he turned his wine cellar into a GPU server rack and how he uses his personal AI agent that runs entirely from his house. This is one of my favorite pods I've ever done. Timestamps: 00:00 Amazon blocks Muse 02:40 Shopify's approach to AI agents 07:00 How AI agents will change shopping 11:05 Sci-fi and tech optimism 17:57 Zero-sum thinking vs. abundance 21:20 AI backlash and the founder advantage 45:28 Building an AI-first Shopify 52:18 Who profits from agentic commerce? 01:03:22 How Shopify stays ahead 01:10:39 Advertising and discovery in the agent era 01:16:02 Rack, Cellar, and Claw Links: Spotify: https://t.co/dEn15RrP7B Substack: https://t.co/JxkbohU0qz YouTube: https://t.co/2DTtOZ64yN Apple Podcasts: https://t.co/fEI7x7IzlD This episode's presenting sponsor is @hyperagentapp Thanks to the show’s premiere sponsors: @Atlassian, @meetgranola, and @mercury
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How will personal AI agents make money? Shopify CEO @tobi:
"These agents are of tremendous value. Once you have this set up, the money you would have to pay someone to agree that they can never use their Muse again is increasing by the day. There's sort of a reverse-money test.
You're not going to get 2% [of transactions]. Welcome to the world of basis points.
This is one of those areas where I'm just honestly not concerned. There's going to be so much exchange of value here... There are opportunities to monetize, and maybe it's going to go in a way like electricity metering in the background, or maybe it's going to be in a way like transaction flows. Maybe it's going to do all of those things.
People are spending money inefficiently... I think the world is not as optimized as people think, and agents can help people save money"