How AI is changing software engineering at Shopify with Farhan Thawar
Audio Brief
Show transcript
This episode details Shopify's strategy as an AI-first company, highlighting its aggressive and early adoption of AI tools and the cultural shift required for deep integration.
Four key takeaways emerge from this discussion.
First, proactive AI adoption provides a significant first-mover advantage. Shopify exemplified this by securing GitHub Copilot for all engineers in 2021, a full year before ChatGPT's public release. This early integration deeply embedded AI into core development, fostering continuous experimentation and feedback.
Second, AI's biggest impact may occur beyond engineering. Within Shopify, non-R&D departments such as Finance, Sales, and Support are now driving the most significant growth in AI tool usage. This demonstrates AI's transformative potential extends across the entire organization, enhancing productivity in diverse roles.
Third, driving company-wide AI adoption requires a dual approach. Top-down, Shopify's CEO mandated "Reflexive AI" for active integration by all employees. Bottom-up, the company is hiring 1,000 "AI centaur" interns, infusing AI-native talent to accelerate cultural change and viewing AI costs as a critical investment.
Fourth, modern hiring practices must evolve to integrate AI tools. Shopify now incorporates AI coding assistants into senior engineering interviews, shifting evaluation from raw coding ability to a candidate's judgment and critical thinking in leveraging AI-generated code.
Shopify's aggressive, holistic, and innovative AI strategy positions it as a leader in leveraging artificial intelligence across all facets of its business.
Episode Overview
- This episode details Shopify's strategy as an "AI-first" company, highlighting their aggressive and early adoption of AI tools like GitHub Copilot back in 2021, a year before ChatGPT's public release.
- It explores the cultural shift required for deep AI integration, driven by a CEO memo on "Reflexive AI," extensive internal tooling, and a unique hiring strategy of bringing in 1,000 interns to act as "AI centaurs."
- The conversation reveals surprising adoption trends, with non-technical departments like Finance and Sales now driving the growth of AI tool usage within the company.
- The discussion covers Shopify's unique approach to hiring, where senior engineering candidates are expected to use AI coding assistants in interviews to test their judgment rather than just their coding skills.
Key Concepts
- Early AI Adoption: Shopify secured GitHub Copilot for all engineers in 2021, a year before ChatGPT, becoming the first company outside GitHub to use it by providing feedback in a free two-year arrangement.
- Reflexive AI Culture: A company-wide memo from CEO Tobi Lütke set the expectation for all employees to move from passive awareness to active, reflexive use of AI in their daily workflows.
- AI Adoption Beyond Engineering: The most significant recent growth in AI tool usage (specifically Cursor) at Shopify is coming from non-R&D departments, including Finance, Sales, and Support.
- Internal AI Infrastructure: Shopify built its own secure LLM proxy and a Master Control Program (MCP) to index internal data sources like wikis, making them safely accessible to internal AI tools.
- Hiring "AI Centaurs": The company is hiring 1,000 interns to bring in talent native to using AI tools, viewing them as "AI centaurs" (part human, part AI) to accelerate cultural change from the ground up.
- AI Cost as an Investment: The cost of AI tools is viewed as a cheap investment for productivity gains, with the argument that the value they provide makes them "too cheap."
- AI in Leadership Interviews: Shopify incorporates AI coding assistants into its hiring process for senior engineering roles, shifting the evaluation from raw coding ability to the candidate's judgment in using AI-generated code.
Quotes
- At 0:13 - "THIS IS 2021, A YEAR BEFORE CHATGPT." - Thawar provides context for when he pushed to get Copilot, highlighting how far ahead of the public AI boom this was.
- At 0:49 - "THE GROWTH IN CURSOR AT SHOPIFY IS HAPPENING A LOT outside of engineering." - Thawar shares the surprising insight that non-technical teams are driving the adoption of the AI tool Cursor.
- At 27:38 - "My hypothesis here is $1,000 a month is too cheap... It is insane that people are looking at this like $100 a month." - Farhan Thawar arguing that the cost of powerful AI tools is a small price to pay for significant productivity gains.
- At 33:53 - "I want you to come to work with an LLM and a brain, not one or the other." - Farhan Thawar explaining the "AI centaur" philosophy behind hiring 1,000 interns who are native to using AI tools.
- At 42:00 - "The copilot generates tons of code, and now I'm like, 'Great, is that good code, bad code?' I love it." - Farhan Thawar on why Shopify encourages using AI tools in coding interviews, as it allows them to test a candidate's judgment and critical thinking.
Takeaways
- Proactively adopting new AI technology, even before it is commercially available, can provide a significant first-mover advantage.
- The biggest impact of AI tools may occur outside of engineering, as non-technical teams discover novel ways to enhance their workflows.
- Drive company-wide AI adoption through a combination of top-down leadership mandates and a bottom-up infusion of AI-native talent.
- Modernize hiring practices by integrating AI tools into interviews to assess a candidate's judgment and critical thinking, not just their ability to code from memory.
