Latest news with #Lutke
India Today
08-05-2025
- Business
- India Today
AI job loss: Fiverr CEO says AI will replace humans, Duolingo and Shopify are already doing that
There has long been a conversation that AI will soon do a lot of mundane tasks that humans have to do right now. This includes some of the daily tasks at work, including coding, research, etc. India Today Tech interviewed the former HCL CEO Vineet Nayar in March 2024, who had then predicted that IT companies will soon need 70 per cent fewer people because of AI. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has on a number of occasions prophesied that AI will replace coders in the future. Earlier this week, Fiverr CEO Micha Kaufman was a little more blunt in his prediction when he said that 'AI is coming for your jobs'. advertisement"It doesn't matter if you are a programmer, designer, product manager, data scientist, lawyer, customer support, salesperson or a finance person - AI is coming for you," he said in an email he shared with his employees. In line with the predictions of other tech leaders, Kaufman also says that AI will soon be taking over the 'easy tasks' and turn them into automated processes. And the harder tasks will also be simplified with the help of AI. While these predictions sound like they are in a somewhat distant future, looking at the industry trends, that future is much closer than we realise. The recent update to Duolingo and Shopify's hiring policy is the best Aexample of that. Last month, Shopify CEO Tobias Lutke shared an internal memo setting up a new direction for the company. Lutke said that going forward, AI will be central to the company's work. Lutke said, here on, if anyone in the company hires a human employee, they will have to first prove why AI can not do that job. 'Before asking for more headcount and resources, teams must demonstrate why they cannot get what they want done using AI,' he wrote. 'What would this area look like if autonomous AI agents were already part of the team?' advertisementLutke wrote in his memo that AI has led to a shift in how work is done faster than anything he has seen before. And to keep up with it, he asked his employees to look at AI as a partner for everything, whether it is writing code, doing research or in case they need an assistant. In fact, Lutke told his employees that AI usage will also be used as a factor in employee performance and peer reviews. He wants his employees to show how they are using AI, what they are doing to get better at it, etc. Duolingo recently did a similar thing. 'Duolingo is going to be AI-first', announced the company's CEO Luis von Ahn. 'We'll gradually stop using (human) contractors to do work that AI can handle,' he said. 'AI use will be part of what we look for in hiring.'While the Duolingo CEO insists that the shift in strategy is not about job cuts in order to save cost, but to overcome creative bottlenecks. However, the fact of the matter is that the practice will eventually lead to lesser number of human employees being hired, which will in turn lead to job loss. 'Headcount will only be (increased) if a team cannot automate more of their work,' Ahn solution? The common solution offered by almost all leaders is that professionals need to rapidly adapt, reskill, and adopt AI into their workflows. Replit CEO Amjad Massad recently said that with 'AI agents getting better, it would be a waste of time to learn how to code'. He suggests that to combat the new trend in the job market, employees need to 'learn how to think, learn how to break down problems. Learn how to communicate clearly [with AI], as you would with humans,' he said.
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Shopify Workers Are Expected to Use Gen AI at Work. Is Your Job Next?
Most of us get the same basic questions in our employee performance reviews, even if we work totally different jobs: What did you accomplish in the last year? What are your opportunities for improvement? But here's one you might not have seen before: How did you use generative AI at work? Something like that question might be on the next performance reviews for at least one employer. In a memo posted online after it leaked and was reported on by CNBC and others, Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke said using AI in the workplace is no longer optional at the e-commerce software firm, which employed about 8,100 people at the end of 2024. "Using AI effectively is now a fundamental expectation of everyone at Shopify," Lutke wrote in the memo. Gen AI tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini are increasingly being touted as game-changers at the office, with business leaders saying they can make employees more efficient. At the same time, that transformation has raised concerns that these tools will replace humans, leading to fewer jobs. A recent Pew Research Center survey found 64% of American adults expected AI growth would lead to fewer jobs. Shopify is one company emphasizing gen AI in the workplace, but it isn't the only one. What happens when your boss adds "use AI" to your job responsibilities? Lutke's memo emphasized the importance of Shopify's employees tinkering with AI and spelled out certain requirements, including sharing what they've learned about using AI tools. He also said teams would need to demonstrate why AI can't meet needs before asking for more resources or to hire new employees. The memo clearly shows one potential impact of gen AI on the availability of jobs: Companies will be less willing to hire if that work can be done by AI instead. That fear is widely shared, with more Americans worried than hopeful about AI's impact on jobs, according to a separate Pew survey released in February that focused on Americans' thoughts on AI at work. Despite the widespread fears, Nicole Sahin, CEO and founder of G-P, a global employment and human relations firm, told me she still sees companies hiring workers in line with what would be expected in a growing labor market. "Companies are definitely hiring people and they can't find enough talent," she said. "I don't feel that hiring is slowing down." What is changing, perhaps, is that the people who are being hired for the kinds of jobs that can be done alongside gen AI tools are being hired based on their ability to be creative and versatile with that technology, Sahin said. The Shopify memo and its expectation around AI use is "the beginning of the new normal," Sahin said. G-P released a survey this week of more than 3,000 global executives and HR professionals, with 91% of executives reporting they're scaling up AI efforts at their companies. Sahin said she sees the issue as one where companies expect workers to be willing to experiment and be creative with technology. "The willingness to be nimble is extremely important," she said. Experts say the expanding use of gen AI in the workplace is changing the skills employees need to thrive. Many workers, including those in entry-level positions, will need to rely more on subject matter expertise and judgment rather than the skills to do tasks that can be done by an AI tool instead. Most workers in the February Pew survey said they don't use AI chatbots at all or use them rarely, and only 16% reported using AI in their jobs. Even younger workers generally aren't using AI in their jobs. A Gallup survey released this week asked Gen Z adults about their use of gen AI in the workplace. Only 30% said they used it for work, and more than half said their workplace didn't have a formal AI policy. The survey found 29% said AI doesn't exist for their work and 36% said the risks outweighed the benefits in their jobs. Just because you can or do use AI at work doesn't mean it's worth it. A report this month by the consultancy firm Coastal found half of the business leaders it surveyed said they've seen no measurable return on investment from AI, and only 21% reported proven outcomes. Coastal attributed this gap between hype and results to the disconnect between experimentation and strategy. "Without clear business alignment or defined outcomes, AI risks staying stuck in the 'interesting but isolated' category," the Coastal report said. Gen AI systems like ChatGPT may be able to generate answers to a wide variety of queries, but they aren't answering those things the same way a human would. For one, they're prone to errors known as hallucinations -- essentially making stuff up instead of acknowledging they don't know the answer. That makes it essential to use AI wisely and not trust its answers as always being correct. Especially large, general language models like ChatGPT, which are trained on a vast amount of data, not all of it good or relevant to your job. Those kinds of models "really should not be used for work," Sahin said. "When you're thinking about using AI in business, it can't hallucinate, it can't get things wrong." In the workplace, you want specialized tools that are less likely to hallucinate and are easier to verify and correct, she said. Workers need to be able to detect those issues and fix them in order to use AI well. At Shopify, learning those skills is just part of the job now, Lutke wrote. "Frankly, I don't think it's feasible to opt out of learning the skill of applying AI in your craft; you are welcome to try, but I want to be honest I cannot see this working out today, and definitely not tomorrow."
Miami Herald
09-04-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Shopify CEO gives employees a stern wake-up call
Shopify (SHOP) , which helps online retailers sell products and manage operations, has made significant changes in its workplace in recent years, especially after a startling discovery. Since 2022, the company has deployed a series of quiet layoffs in its customer service department; the latest round reportedly took place in January of this year. Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter By 2023, Shopify launched its "Code Yellow" initiative after its executives claimed customer service levels "deteriorated beyond acceptable ranges." Related: Starbucks CEO has a tough message for employees after layoffs The initiative involves Shopify increasing the use of artificial intelligence to assist its Support employees in completing tasks. Now, it appears that Shopify has significantly warmed up to using AI in the company's workplace. Image source: Bloomberg/Getty Images Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke recently sent a memo to employees informing them that implementing AI in their workflow is now a "fundamental expectation" of everyone at the company and refusing to use it can result in failure. "I don't think it's feasible to opt out of learning the skill of applying Al in your craft; you are welcome to try, but I want to be honest. I cannot see this working out today, and definitely not tomorrow," said Lutke. "Stagnation is almost certain, and stagnation is slow-motion failure. If you're not climbing, you're sliding." Lutke emphasized that using AI is the "most rapid shift to how work is done" as it can "augment our skills, crafts, and fill in our gaps." He also said that using the technology is a skill that needs to be "carefully learned" by "using it a lot." Related: Snapchat CEO teaches new employees a strict lesson "In a company growing 20-40% year over year, you must improve by at least that every year just to re-qualify," said Lutke. "This goes for me as well as everyone else. This sounds daunting, but given the nature of the tools, this doesn't even sound terribly ambitious to me anymore." The CEO also informed employees that before they request more headcount and resources, they will need to prove that their jobs can't be completed using AI. "Before asking for more Headcount and resources, teams must demonstrate why they cannot get what they want done using Al," said Lutke. "What would this area look like if autonomous Al agents were already part of the team? This question can lead to really fun discussions and projects." The move from Shopify comes as its competitors Meta, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are reportedly planning to invest a combined $320 billion in expanding AI this year. This is higher than the $246 billion they reported in total capital expenditures in 2024. More Labor: Amazon CEO gives employees a harsh wake-up callStarbucks CEO has a tough message for employees after layoffsSnapchat CEO teaches new employees a strict lesson According to a report for Goldman Sachs, AI could replace about 300 million full-time jobs in the U.S. and Europe by 2030. As the tech industry increasingly bets on AI, many employees across the country are anxious about the impact the technology could have on their jobs. According to a recent survey from YouGov, more than one-third of U.S. workers are concerned that AI will result in job loss or cut work hours. Also, 56% of workers responding to the survey believe AI will shrink the number of job opportunities, and 55% think their work hours will be reduced due to the technology. Related: Veteran fund manager unveils eye-popping S&P 500 forecast The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
Forbes
08-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Shopify CEO's AI-First Hiring Policy Is Job Security's Ticking Clock
Shopify's CEO is demanding that managers show AI can't do the work before hiring a new employee. It's a move that should set alarm bells ringing for workers across industries. Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke has implemented a hiring policy that foreshadows a fundamental shift in employment practices. Managers must now show why artificial intelligence cannot perform a job before being granted permission to hire human talent. This seemingly innocent efficiency measure conceals a stark warning about the future of work—one that will likely affect marketers, executives, and frontline employees alike. What makes Lutke's memo so chilling isn't just its implications for potential hires. The scary part is how quickly and naturally this thinking could extend to current employees. The logical next question isn't hard to imagine: "Why should we keep paying you when AI might do your job?" This isn't some distant dystopian scenario. At Shopify, AI proficiency is already factored into performance reviews. Lutke says there's a "fundamental expectation" that employees incorporate AI into their daily work. Those who fail to embrace these tools are explicitly marked for underperformance, likely the first step toward eventual redundancy. Marketing departments may face particular scrutiny given the rapid advances in AI-generated content, campaign optimization, and customer journey mapping. CMOs will soon need to justify not just campaign budgets but the human headcount maintaining them. The economic logic behind this shift is undeniable. A year ago, consumer finance company Klarna eliminated the need for 700 call center agents. AI completes the tasks in less than 20% of the time humans required while maintaining comparable satisfaction scores. The firm predicted that not hiring those workers would drop an additional $40 million to their bottom line. With economics this compelling, the corporate calculation becomes simple. Many corporate leaders still adhere to Milton Friedman's maxim that the primary purpose of a company is to maximize shareholder returns. Some firms still consider employees as important stakeholders in the business, not expendable assets. But, even they can be pressured to cut costs and reprioritize by outside forces like activist investors. The pace of this transition is accelerating. In 2024, tech companies laid off over 152,000 employees. The 2025 tally is approaching 28,000. Shopify itself has shrunk its workforce from 10,000 to 8,100 over the past two years through multiple reduction rounds. For those hoping to remain employed in an AI-first world, the strategy must be two-fold: make yourself irreplaceable through uniquely human capabilities while simultaneously becoming an AI power user. The employees who survive won't be those who fight against AI but those who leverage it as a force multiplier. As Lutke observed, employees who embrace AI tackle "implausible tasks" and achieve "100X the work done" compared to traditional methods. The most defensible positions will center on traits AI struggles to replicate: genuine empathy, creative vision, relationship-building, and ethical decision-making. Human marketers who thrive will be those who can craft authentic emotional connections and identify cultural nuances that AI still misses. Shopify's hiring policy is the canary in the corporate coal mine. The fundamental question is shifting from "Can AI do this job?" to "Prove to me why AI can't." This reframing places the burden of proof on employees rather than technology. The time to prepare isn't when your boss schedules the "AI justification" meeting—it's now. Document your uniquely human contributions. Master the AI tools in your field. Reposition yourself as an AI orchestrator rather than a task performer. Here's the truth: Shopify's policy isn't radical—it's simply ahead of the curve. And, Lutke's statement puts in the open what other companies are doing with less fanfare. The day when every employee must justify their existence against AI alternatives is approaching faster than most realize. When that day comes, the unprepared will find themselves facing a ticking clock they didn't know was counting down.
