Latest news with #TobiLütke
Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
The 5% rule: What can you do that AI still can't?
By Abhik Choudhury This anxiety around AI taking our jobs isn't novel, it's just wearing shinier shoes this time. We've been here before when steam engines replaced horse carts, when ATMs replaced bank tellers, when Excel wiped out half of accounting. This time, though, it's not the blue collars trying to make ends meet but the white collar elite looking nervously over their ergonomic chairs. Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke recently said that the company has paused hiring for roles where AI can already outperform humans, adding, "You must prove that what you do cannot be done better by AI." The industrial revolution replaced muscle. The AI revolution is replacing method, and maybe even meaning. Machines haven't made humans irrelevant, they've forced us to evolve. And that's what's happening again. According to the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025, on one hand skills like creative thinking are one of the fastest growing while roles like graphic designers are one of the fastest declining. So to reiterate a much needed distinction, no, human intelligence isn't becoming irrelevant, it's just being upgraded. THE 5% RULE: EVOLVE OR BE EXCEPTIONAL Here's the uncomfortable truth: If you're not evolving, you need to be in the top 5% to survive. Everyone else? Relearn. Rethink. Rewire. Everything. AI doesn't care about your job title. And there is now enough research to confirm neither does your customer. They want output, fast . They want value, consistent . You may love craft, but the customer loves convenience. Be honest: Would you buy a smartphone just because one ad was made by Gemini and the other by Gitanjali? Back in 2019 itself, JP Morgan Chase tested AI written copy via Persado and saw a 450% spike in click-through rates. The tool analyzed millions of phrases to pick what would resonate emotionally with readers. Good three years ago WPP partnered with NVIDIA to build a generative AI-Enabled content engine trained in layout, typography and brand personality for their advertising briefs exclusively for art directors. These examples are from years ago. Today, the tools are leaner, faster, and trained on every brand brief since Mad Men aired. Recently a global agency head told me how pre pandemic they usually needed an average of 12 people before a campaign went live, now the number is already at 4. Just ask around, in the last two years how many full time, mid to senior level hires have happened in the industry and how many senior creative directors of the biggest names are working as freelance consultants now. And this is not to say creative legends are obsolete. If you're Stephen King, Gulzar, or Nolan, you'll always be in demand. But if your name isn't also your brand? You're not fighting AI. You're fighting other humans using AI better than you. So don't go to a gun fight with a sword. Especially when we are just figuring out the expanse of AI agents while almost fully liberated, self deciding Agentic AI's are on standby waiting to go live any day now. In the end, revenue never lies, and it's never sentimental. Really unfortunate but we've built a capitalist system that is supposed to reward results, not romance. So what are the next steps: Identify the 10% of your role that relies on deep human insight, nuanced emotion, or cultural fluency. Double your last 3 projects. What part was remarkable and not replicable?Study your audience more than your on your personal brand moat, become so synonymous with a niche that you are good enough to train the software with your experience. STOP BEING ROMANTIC. START BEING REFLECTIVE. Let's take journalism. If you're not using AI to scan earnings calls, summarize government reports, or verify PR spin in real time you're not post AI ready. According to UKG's 2023 Survey across 10 countries, 78% of CSuite expect automation in workflows by 2028. Earlier this year, Australia's CADA found itself at the center of backlash when it was revealed that their popular 11am–3pm radio show, 'Workdays with Thy,' was hosted entirely by AI, a synthetic face and Eleven Labs powered voice that went unnoticed for six months. It's still on air. And it's not just reporting. At McKinsey, an AI assistant named Lilli released in 2023 is trained on 100 years of internal consulting work. It scans over 100,000 documents and as per their own statement is used by more than 70% of its 45,000 consultants who use it weekly to surface insights and accelerate analysis. What did junior analysts once do in weeks, Lilli does in minutes. Now the partner can just ask Lilli: 'Why did Pepsi Co lose 10K dealers in March 2013?' And they will instantly get references, charts, and insights to draft it into a presentation or proposal. No digging through dead PDFs, old mail trails & 20 TB hard drives over a month. And here's the kicker: prompt performance is now quietly being used to evaluate junior consultants. Not just in consulting, but across industries. The $20 vs $2000 productivity debate is already playing out in every CFO's head. Now let's take a look at a completely different department: HR. IBM's AI models now claim 95% accuracy in flagging which employees are likely to quit using patterns in tenure, overtime, and promotion history. They saved $300 million by retaining talent before attrition struck. Tools like Humanyze now scan real-time sentiment on Slack, Teams, and some even deep dive into internal email analysis. They don't just predict disengagement, they offer action plans. 'This person is likely to quit in the next 60 days. Please take the following steps to retain.' That's not science fiction. That's Tuesday. The future HR won't just sense attrition, it'll trigger work flows. 'Change the project, schedule a 1:1, lower the workload.' So if the algorithm can sense burnout and enable preemptive retention steps before your boss can, maybe it's time to stop pretending it's still 2018. So what are the next steps: Learn prompt engineering. It's today's a macro course in understanding the basics of building & working with AI your own AI stack for daily work. Think of it as your second a weekly ritual: 'How did AI save me 7 hours this week and how can I use that time more effectively now?' THE EPILOGUE: SURPRISE THE ALGORITHM AI can now write poetry, generate illustrations, mimic brand voices, and compose video scripts in seconds. What it can't do is be weird. Or uncomfortable. Or irrational. Or beautiful in a way that makes no statistical sense. AI is trained on what is expected to be good. But it cannot carry the weight of a lullaby or the chaos of a forgotten love. In a world engineered for sameness, your rebellion is your art. Break the expected patterns till you glow as the glitch. And ask yourself before your next project, pitch, or personal brand tweak: 'Is this surprising the algorithm?' Want to thrive? Be the one AI can't clone (yet) because your voice, your vision, or your thinking still surprises the algorithm. And that's the t-shirt I would have gifted to my students entering the creative field: Surprise the algorithm. Because that, kind reader, is your 5%. The age of purely human output is gone. What we're in now is the hybrid era where the best of us will look increasingly like Iron Man, not Superman. Tech augmented, emotionally intelligent, and dangerously efficient. In ten years, this article might not just be translated, it could be psychographically rewritten for each reader. Same ideas, but delivered in the tone, lingo, and rhythm your brain likes best. Written by me? Maybe. Written by an AI trained on my brain? Almost certainly. (The author is chief strategist and founder of Salt and Paper Consulting. Views expressed are personal.)
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The AI Race: How Shopify Positions Itself to Win
Key Points AI is lowering the barriers for merchants, helping them do more with less. An AI-first culture is making Shopify faster, better, and stronger. AI adoption helps Shopify improve its financials. 10 stocks we like better than Shopify › Shopify (NASDAQ: SHOP) has always been a platform built to empower entrepreneurs. But as artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes how businesses operate, Shopify is leaning in -- not just with new features but with a full-stack transformation. The company is reengineering its platform, product, and internal culture around it. Above all, it's positioning itself to emerge as one of the winners in this next technology cycle. 1. AI as a merchant superpower The most visible impact of AI is on the merchants themselves. Shopify is embedding AI into tools that make it dramatically easier to build, run, and scale a business -- often with fewer people and less effort. A prime example is Shopify's new AI-powered Store Builder, which can generate an entire storefront -- layout, product descriptions, and banners -- from a simple brand description. It's a game-changer for new entrepreneurs. The company also significantly expanded its AI assistant, Sidekick, which now supports all 20 languages in the Shopify admin. Sidekick offers both text and voice chat, and can generate images, run sales reports, create customer segments, and even filter orders. It's more than a chatbot -- it's a digital co-pilot for every aspect of e-commerce. Shopify also launched Shopify Magic, a suite of free AI features embedded throughout the platform, automating everything from email marketing to content generation. By making powerful tools easily accessible, Shopify helps merchants do more with less. It lowers the technical and creative barriers to entry, attracts more first-time entrepreneurs, and increases productivity for existing sellers. The result is more merchants, better retention, and a long-term expansion of Shopify's total addressable market. 2. AI-first company culture and operating model While serving customers is the priority, Shopify is also making sure that it's getting the most out of this revolutionary technology. Internally, Shopify has declared an "AI-first" mindset, making sure that AI is embedded into the company's way of doing things. For instance, founder and CEO Tobi Lütke has declared that AI literacy is now a baseline expectation across Shopify and that employees must find ways to learn AI skills. The company will add AI usage questions to its performance reviews, with employees -- including all executives -- expected to integrate AI into daily workflows. In other words, Shopify is reshaping its organizational DNA around AI, using it not just as a product feature but as a foundation for how the entire company operates. Doing so will likely lead to multiple benefits, including a leaner cost base, the ability to move and innovate faster, and, above all, continuously staying ahead of the competition. 4. Long-term margin expansion and operating leverage Shopify's AI strategy isn't just about smarter features -- it's a lever for financial upside. AI allows the company to serve more merchants with less incremental cost, driving improved operating leverage. At the same time, by launching enterprise-grade AI tools, Shopify is extending its reach beyond SMBs and tapping into larger customers with higher lifetime value. So, its AI strategy creates a rare combination: higher growth and higher margins, two ingredients that compound into significant long-term shareholder value. Shopify's AI investments could unlock a new phase of scalable, profitable growth -- boosting free cash flow and supporting long-term valuation expansion. What it means for investors Shopify isn't just adopting AI -- it's being transformed by it. From merchant-facing features to internal operations, the company is weaving AI into everything it does. For investors, this is more than a tech upgrade. It's a strategic shift that improves customer outcomes, increases organizational agility, and enhances the company's long-term financial profile. What's more, Shopify is quietly evolving into an AI-powered commerce operating system -- and that could make it one of the most important platforms in the next era of online business. It's a company that investors should keep an eye on. Should you invest $1,000 in Shopify right now? Before you buy stock in Shopify, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Shopify wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $634,627!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,046,799!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,037% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 182% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 21, 2025 Lawrence Nga has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Shopify. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. The AI Race: How Shopify Positions Itself to Win was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Time of India
5 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Yahoo Japan to all its 11,000 employees: Using AI is mandatory to…
Yahoo Japan has announced that all 11,000 employees must integrate generative AI into their daily work tasks, aiming to double productivity by 2028 through comprehensive automation of routine workplace functions. The company, which also operates the popular LINE messaging app, will require staff to use AI tools for research, meeting documentation, expense management, and competitive analysis. The initiative targets tasks that consume approximately 30% of employees' time, including searching, drafting, and routine documentation. Yahoo Japan has already developed internal tools like SeekAI to manage expense claims and data searches using prompt templates. AI will also create agendas, summarize meetings, and proofread reports, enabling employees to focus on higher-level decision-making and strategic discussions rather than administrative tasks. Other tech giants also jump on the mandatory AI bandwagon by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Dementia Has Been Linked To a Common Habit. Do You Do It? NeuroVita Global Learn More Undo Yahoo Japan isn't alone in forcing employees to embrace artificial intelligence. Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke established AI use as a "baseline expectation" in an internal memo, requiring teams to demonstrate why AI cannot accomplish tasks before requesting additional resources. Amazon has taken an even more aggressive approach, with CEO Andy Jassy telling employees the company will need "fewer people doing some of the jobs" as AI automation expands. The e-commerce giant currently operates over 1,000 generative AI services and has cut more than 27,000 jobs since 2022, linking workforce reductions to AI-driven efficiency gains. Amazon's Ring division now requires employees to demonstrate AI usage for promotion eligibility, according to TechRadar. The company reported its AI coding assistant saved programmers 4,500 years of work through automated software upgrades. Will forced AI use actually boost workplace productivity While companies tout productivity benefits, research suggests mixed outcomes from mandatory AI adoption. Some studies indicate AI may decrease rather than increase overall workplace productivity, raising questions about aggressive implementation timelines. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has dismissed job displacement fears, describing AI as "an accelerator" that eliminates tedious tasks while creating opportunities for higher-value work. However, employee reactions remain skeptical, with Amazon workers expressing concerns about job security on internal communication channels. Yahoo Japan's comprehensive mandate represents a significant test case for whether mandatory AI integration can deliver promised productivity gains. AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Shopify's AI strategy its 'biggest potential driver of profitability': Analyst
Canadian e-commerce giant Shopify ( is showing resilience as Canadian tech stocks trail their U.S. counterparts. Analysts cite the company's push to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and strength in e-commerce as key drivers of its growth. 'So far, 2025 has not been a banner year for Canadian technology,' said Richard Tse, an analyst at National Bank of Canada Financial Markets, in a report. The S&P/TSX Information Technology Index provided a return of 5.6 per cent in the first half of the year, lagging broader benchmarks like the S&P 500 Information Technology Index and the NASDAQ 100, which returned 7.7 per cent and 7.9 per cent respectively, Tse said. In comparison, Shopify provided a return of approximately 8 per cent in the first half of 2025, according to National Bank. National Bank, CIBC and RBC analysts consider Shopify a 'buy,' primarily because of its investment in AI and merchant solutions. 'The most notable broad driver of growth and innovation for Shopify is from AI – its application both internally and for its merchants. In our view, this is by far the biggest potential driver of profitability for Shopify care of operating leverage,' Tse said. Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke has been outspoken about the company's AI ambitions. In April, he shared an internal memo on X, stating that 'reflexive AI usage is now a baseline expectation at Shopify,' and teams must demonstrate why they can't accomplish tasks via AI before asking for more staff or resources. In May, the Canadian Press reported that Shopify iss leaning into AI to support its merchants and developers with everything from online store creation to virtual shopping assistants. The company called its new product launches and enhancements a shift toward 'declarative commerce — where business owners simply express their goals, and AI handles the rest.' Beyond AI, Shopify is scaling its merchant solutions, such as payments. In 2025, Shopify expanded payments from 23 to 39 countries. Further, Tse expects a potential Shop Pay partnership with OpenAI, and Shopify powering purchase transactions, could add $500 million in net revenue a year. RBC Capital Markets analyst Paul Trieber noted that Shopify is 'a key beneficiary of the transition to next generation commerce,' as more businesses shift from traditional retail to online platforms and adopt multi-channel strategies, including marketplaces and social commerce. In a note, Treiber forecasts Shopify's gross merchandise value will rise from $292 billion in fiscal 2024 to $423 billion by 2026. CIBC Capital Markets analyst Todd Coupland also points to Shopify's growing merchant base as a sign of future strength. As of the fourth quarter of 2021, Shopify counted two million merchants on its platform. As of its fourth quarter in 2023, 25 million were either in Shopify's sales pipeline or on free trials. While U.S.-China tariff tensions were flagged as a potential threat, analysts see limited impact on the company's growth trajectory so far. 'While tariffs remain a key risk, Shopify is well positioned to help its merchants navigate those challenges,' Coupland said. 'It's notable that if a reasonable China tariff agreement is reached, estimates for the second half of 2025 could be conservative, as they assume a deceleration in growth. We reaffirm our positive thesis on Shopify and recommend investors buy its shares,' Coupland said. CIBC and RBC have raised their price target on Shopify to US$145, up from US$125, while National Bank increased its target to US$140 from US$120. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Forbes
18-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Reflexive AI: Adapt or Become Obsolete
Every Company Is Now a Tech Company. Every Employee Too For decades, people claimed every company was becoming a technology company. For the most part, that wasn't true, especially for employees. Now it is. Technology is at the core of every business, and artificial intelligence is the tipping point. The implications are massive. From the CEO to the first-year intern, everyone is on the front lines of change. The expectations are no longer abstract. You need to understand your business or function, and you need to understand AI. If you don't, you won't just fall behind. You'll be replaced. This isn't an Isaac Asimov science fiction novel. It's 2025. And the urgency is real. What was once theoretical is now a professional survival skill. Just as past generations had to learn Excel, today's workforce must learn to work with AI. It must become a reflexive in every part of one's work. Shopify founder Tobi Lütke calls it 'Context Engineering.' Others call it Prompt Engineering. Either way, it requires a new mindset. We must shift from operating on autopilot to deliberately starting everything we do with AI. This shift is not optional. Employees who don't adapt are not just slower. They are at serious risk of becoming unemployable. This transition is harder because it isn't like mobile adoption, which quietly integrated itself into our lives. This is more like learning a professional skill from scratch. Excel wasn't imposed on you. You had to decide to learn it. The same applies here. And the consequences of staying on the sidelines now are far more severe. Those who do not actively adopt AI risk losing their place in the workforce FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 06: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (R) speaks as OpenAI CEO Sam ... More Altman (L) looks on during the OpenAI DevDay event on November 06, 2023 in San Francisco, California. Altman delivered the keynote address at the first ever Open AI DevDay conference. (Photo by)It's Not a Tool. It's the Default Much of the writing on AI focuses on industry transformation. Law, medicine, consulting, finance, all gaining speed and efficiency as AI processes and synthesizes massive data sets. What gets less attention is what this means for every employee. The transformation is not limited to professions. It will reshape every desk job in every office, everywhere. This is not about playing with ChatGPT or Claude on your phone in your downtime. AI is not an app. It must become the foundation of how you think, plan, and produce. Your workflow needs to begin with it, not end with it. It should be the instinctive first move, like checking your email or opening a spreadsheet used to be. If you want to accelerate your career, this is the opportunity. Immersing yourself in AI tools will not just increase your productivity. It will set you apart. People who work with AI are not just faster. They are more capable, more agile, and more valuable. Employees who adopt it early will leapfrog their peers. Some will leapfrog their bosses. Those who delay, ignore, or minimize it will lose ground quickly. AI isn't a trend. It is now the foundation of competitive advantage, both personally and Will Reshape Companies at Every Level AI is going to change the structure and speed of organizations. Fewer people will be needed to do the same volume of work. Teams will shrink. Layers will disappear. Companies will become flatter and faster. The result will not be incremental. It will be a redefinition of how work gets done. In the most forward-leaning organizations, this shift is already happening. AI agents are doing the research, analysis, and synthesis in real time. Human teams now bring judgment, leadership, and strategic thinking to the results. The task of work is shifting from execution to decision-making. This will fundamentally alter how contribution is measured. Historically, activity was the proxy for value. Employees who produced slides, wrote briefs, conducted research, or prepared summaries were considered productive. That model is rapidly collapsing. The premium is shifting from action to intention. The value is not in the work itself, but in the thinking that shapes it. AI's strength is content. Ours is context. The people who can guide the agents to produce meaningful, relevant, and actionable results will be the ones who rise. Context engineering is about asking the right questions, steering the AI, making fast calls. This is the new differentiator. Every interaction improves the tool. The more you engage with AI, the sharper it becomes. The return on that investment is exponential. Timelines collapse, and what once took months now takes hours. You no longer need three meetings to align on an analysis. The results are immediate, and they speak for themselves. The pace is only going to accelerate, and in that environment, the capacity for judgment, trust, and leadership becomes more, not less, DC - SEPTEMBER 13: (L-R) NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Meta CEO ... More Mark Zuckerberg visit before attending the "AI Insight Forum" (Photo by) A Window of Acceleration or Obsolescence This is a career-defining moment. The AI shift is not coming. It is here. For employees at every level, this is the time to integrate it into your work and become fluent. The window to stand out has opened, but it will also close quickly. Those who learn to work with AI will rise, while those who do not will be overtaken by it. We are already seeing companies adjust. Leaders are restructuring and flattening teams, while drastically reducing headcount. Bank of America, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, and Proctor & Gamble are just a small sample of the Companies following this trend. Publicly, this looks like efficiency. Internally, it's an acknowledgment that AI is enabling them to do more with less. Hiring trends confirm it. Many companies have instituted quiet hiring freezes or paused general recruitment all together. Departing employees are not being replaced unless the role is tied to AI expertise. Growth is being achieved through automation and intelligent systems, not headcount. This is not conjecture, it is already happening right in front of Job Market Is Already Telling the Truth The top-line unemployment numbers look healthy but talk to a recent college graduate or a mid-level white-collar worker. Many will tell you the job market is frozen. Openings are scarce, and competition is high. AI capabilities are increasingly a baseline expectation, not a bonus capability, and the market has shifted as the demand for AI-fluent workers is rising. The jobs are for those who aren't complacent and are leveraging AI to be more efficient and effective. For those who don't adapt and make AI a reflexive skill, the job market of 1991 will soon look like a boom of a person's hand holding an iPhone and using Google AI Mode, an experimental mode ... More utilizing artificial intelligence and large language models to process Google search queries, Lafayette, California, March 24, 2025. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
