Shopify faces moderate AGI risk — while its software platform could theoretically be replaced by AGI agents, its growing payments and fulfillment infrastructure anchors it in physical commerce, and AGI could actually expand the merchant population.
Shopify is a leading global commerce platform that provides the software infrastructure for merchants of all sizes to start, manage, and grow their businesses online, in-store, and everywhere in between. The company offers subscription-based software for building online stores, along with merchant solutions including payment processing (Shopify Payments), shipping, capital lending, and point-of-sale systems. Shopify powers millions of merchants in 175+ countries and has become the second-largest e-commerce platform in the US behind Amazon.
Shopify serves merchants ranging from solo entrepreneurs and small businesses to large enterprise brands (via Shopify Plus). Customers include direct-to-consumer brands, retail stores going omnichannel, dropshippers, and large companies like Gymshark, Allbirds, Heinz, and Kylie Cosmetics. The majority of merchants are small-to-medium businesses.
Shopify provides e-commerce infrastructure (storefronts, payments, shipping, fulfillment) for merchants. AGI could theoretically build and manage online stores autonomously, reducing the need for Shopify's platform. An AGI agent could handle product listing, pricing, marketing, customer service, and order management without a dedicated SaaS platform. However, Shopify is increasingly a commerce operating system with payments (Shop Pay), fulfillment, and logistics — physical infrastructure that AGI alone cannot replace. Shopify's customers are merchants — small-to-medium businesses selling physical and digital goods. These are primarily entrepreneurs and retailers, not IT companies. AGI could actually empower more people to become merchants by lowering the barrier to starting a business. However, if AGI enables a few mega-platforms to dominate all commerce, small merchants could be squeezed out.