Tobi Lütke on AI agents and the future of Shopify
In a Toronto podcast, Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke explained why Amazon banned Meta's Muse while Shopify chose to embrace it, and discussed how e-commerce and advertising will change once AI agents shop on users' behalf. He also talked about how agentic commerce makes money, who pays for purchases made by agents, and converting his own wine cellar into a GPU server rack to run a personal AI agent fully deployed at home.
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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