Shopify’s AI ‘Sidekick’ chatbot for merchants is now in early access

Shopify’s caller AI “Sidekick” chatbot is officially launching successful aboriginal access, the institution said arsenic portion of its “2024 Summer Edition” updates announced connected Monday.

Sidekick, which the institution archetypal revealed past year, functions arsenic a enactment chatbot for merchants, helping them bash things similar marque discount codes, make reports astir your store, oregon suggest blog station ideas. Sure, it sounds similar beauteous emblematic AI chatbot stuff, but it seems similar it could beryllium a utile mode to get assistance oregon assistance, particularly if Shopify continues to tailor the chatbot to acceptable merchant needs.

Sidekick is unrecorded crossed thousands of Shopify stores, but it’s presently constricted to merchants who person English stores successful North America, Vanessa Lee, Shopify’s vice president of product, says successful an interrogation with The Verge. If you don’t person Sidekick and privation to effort it, you tin sign up for the waitlist. And the institution wants to marque it disposable successful different languages and different locales, Lee says.

Shopify is making a fistful of different AI-focused announcements, too. One, AI-powered merchandise categorization, seems similar it could really prevention merchants a batch of time. As you’re gathering a merchandise listing, Shopify’s tech tin automatically suggest the taxonomy astir the merchandise — taxonomy that’s utilized to marque listings much easy discoverable — that mightiness acceptable that merchandise truthful that you don’t person to benignant it successful yourself. If Shopify’s suggestions aren’t right, you tin manually alteration things.

Another AI instrumentality volition connection suggested replies for lawsuit chats that travel successful done Shopify Inbox. Right now, these replies are conscionable suggestions, meaning merchants volition person to beryllium the ones to finalize and really nonstop a response. Lee says Shopify is unfastened to the anticipation of letting customers chat with an AI chatbot that speaks connected behalf of the merchant, but for now, the institution has chosen to support the quality successful the loop “until we’re uber assured that thing would happen.”

Shopify is besides bringing its AI-powered representation generator, which launched successful January, to its iOS and Android apps and letting merchants usage it successful much places successful their Shopify admin. The institution says Shopify merchants person saved much than 1 cardinal AI-generated images successful six months.