“We’re All in on This!” Shopify Stock (TSE:SHOP) Slumps as AI Takes New Prominence

Just two weeks ago, we found out that Canadian e-commerce stock Shopify (TSE:SHOP), was getting into a new artificial intelligence (AI)-driven tool for its online shops. But what some may not have known was just how far the company was getting into artificial intelligence, to the point that jobs could be at risk for those who fail to use the technology in question. Shareholders rebelled, meanwhile, and sent Shopify shares down over 2% in Wednesday morning’s trading.

A couple months ago, we first heard that Shopify was going to cut back on hiring by, essentially, requiring a job to go through AI first. In fact, hiring managers and associated teams would be obliged to demonstrate why a job could not be merely handed off to AI instead of requiring an actual paid staffer to do the job. That in turn led Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke to declare “We’re all in on this!”.

And indeed, Lutke and Shopify seem far from alone here, as more and more of Shopify’s contemporaries and competitors get in on AI to the point where those who do not use it are likely to be let go themselves. The extent of this was demonstrated at Zapier, a workflow automation platform, which revealed: “100% of new hires must be fluent in AI.” This makes for an odd dichotomy, as schools are so set against AI that they are turning to “blue book” copybooks requiring handwritten answers for tests and the like, but are sending their charges into a world where AI use is encouraged, if not outright required.

Owing Kanye Money

Meanwhile, Shopify has an unexpected new creditor, or at least so said creditor asserts, as Kanye West recently emerged to declare that Shopify owes him $4 million. More specifically, Shopify “…is currently holding 4 million dollars of mine,” asserted Kanye on his X, formerly Twitter, page.

The matter reportedly connects back to the Yeezy.com page, where West now-infamously offered up swastika T-shirts for sale in what some called a bait-and-switch during a regional Super Bowl ad. Shopify, not surprisingly, pulled their support from the page. But potentially, apparently, not before Kanye sold a bundle of the shirts in question. It is a safe bet from here that this is likely to go to court, where perhaps the least-fortunate judge in history will be required to determine whether or not Kanye West is still due money for the sales of his swastika-laden apparel.

Is Shopify Stock a Buy or Sell?

Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on TSE:SHOP stock based on 26 Buys and 11 Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 71.92% rally in its share price over the past year, the average SHOP price target of C$156.32 per share implies 10.18% upside potential.

See more TSE:SHOP analyst ratings

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