Shopify exec says AI is ushering in a ‘golden age of entrepreneurship’

Shopify President Harley Finkelstein said Wednesday artificial intelligence is making it easier than ever to start and grow a business.

“AI is kicking entrepreneurship into overdrive,” Finkelstein told Jim Cramer on CNBC’s “Mad Money.” “This is going to be the golden age of entrepreneurship, and Shopify is powering it.”

Finkelstein said AI is transforming how merchants discover customers and run their businesses. Traffic and orders coming from AI platforms such as ChatGPT and Gemini to Shopify stores tripled over the past year, which Finkelstein said is helping smaller brands reach shoppers who may never have found them through traditional search.

Shopify’s e-commerce platform lets anyone build a digital shop and sell things without needing to code. It provides templates to design a website, tracks items, and accepts customer payments all in one place. The company also is behind the purple Shop app, an all-in-one hub where people can track packages from multiple stores, save payment information for fast checkouts, and discover or buy items from various Shopify merchants.

“AI channels like ChatGPT and Gemini, they’re becoming incredibly powerful discovery engines for Shopify stores,” he said. “When you look at AI search, it is particularly helping smaller brands that form the long tail of commerce.”

He added that 75% of AI-driven purchases during the quarter came from product categories outside the top 100, evidence that AI is helping independent merchants compete alongside larger brands.

Finkelstein also highlighted Shopify’s AI assistant, Sidekick, which handled 34 million conversations during the second quarter as more merchants used it to launch and manage their businesses. According to Finkelstein, entrepreneurs who use Sidekick during onboarding reach their first five sales more quickly, an important milestone that often determines whether a new business gains traction.

“Every 26 seconds, a brand new entrepreneur gets their first sale on Shopify,” he said. “The fact that Sidekick is helping more merchants become more successful faster is really, really important.”

Shares of Shopify surged roughly 17% after reporting stronger-than-expected quarterly results, with gross merchandise volume rising to almost $116 billion and the company posting its fifth consecutive quarter of more than 30% GMV growth. The stock is still down 8% this year.