Human support at Shopify may soon be overrun by robot reps.
Business Insider reported today that leaked audio details Shopify's plans to use AI to handle most customer-support inquiries. The support division's future was outlined in a presentation at a recent internal meeting.
🤖 AI Takes the Helm
Shopify leaders explained that merchants will get their inquiries handled by AI before involving human assistance — and even then, you won't get humans without some kind of AI involvement.
- First, a merchant can try to solve a question or issue with the new AI-powered Sidekick tool built into Shopify admin, which we reported on yesterday.
- If Sidekick can't solve the issue, merchants can go to the help center and interact with another new AI assistant there.
- If the issue remains unresolved, merchants will be directed to human support advisors with access to AI tools.
💼 Workers Fear AI Replacement
Employees were, of course, concerned.
During a question-and-answer period, an employee asked how support advisors could be reassured that their jobs are safe.
To their credit, I guess, executives didn't use the usual line we hear with these announcements — that the move won't affect headcount, but will “free up” reps to do more important tasks.. Something that all companies say, and exactly nobody believes.
But no, Shopify executives reportedly responded frankly, telling employees to keep their skills up because job security in the tech industry is not guaranteed.
