Shopify merchants are struggling with the firm’s AI-powered support service and are finding it nearly impossible to speak to a human when they need help.

One merchant who spoke to The Logic described an “endless back and forth” with Shopify’s AI support chatbot as they struggled to get through to a human, despite paying for a service that promises round-the-clock help and a dedicated customer support representative. On Shopify’s support pages and on social media, scores of Shopify merchants have been venting about how difficult it has become to speak to a human as AI takes over.

Speaking to The Logic on condition of anonymity, former Shopify staffers said that the quality of merchant support had been deteriorating for years, adding that an over-reliance on AI was partly to blame. According to one former staffer, an early version of Shopify’s AI support chatbot seemingly made merchants so angry that developers created a feature that connected them to human help faster if they started swearing.

Shopify declined to answer specific questions about the changes to merchant support, though Ben McConaghy, the company’s director of communications, said its human support staff were “using AI to get merchants unstuck faster” and claimed “satisfaction and service levels” were “steadily climbing” as a result.

“The AI is just not there when it comes to customer support,” said Olivia Sawyer, CEO of Kush Queen, a CBD boutique. Kush Queen pays Shopify tens of thousands of dollars a year for access to 24/7 help and its own Shopify support person. She said that the level of support from Shopify had fallen sharply in recent months.

“I’m just astonished,” Sawyer said. Her team hasn’t heard from their Shopify representative in about two years and all requests for help are now filtered through the firm’s chatbot. Some phone support still exists, she said, but her staff find they can only connect to less experienced workers who struggle to solve their queries.

Other merchants using Shopify’s technology to sell online face similar issues. Randy Graham, e-commerce manager at Twistedsage Studios, a family-run jewelry business based in South Dakota, said neither he nor his colleagues were able to speak to a human at Shopify despite being locked out of their store after someone allegedly accessed it and changed the banking information. As a result of the impasse, he’s now rebuilding an online storefront on another platform, with staff having to cut their hours to account for lost revenue due to the disruption. “It caused a lot of grief,” he said of the apparent failure of Shopify’s support service.

Shopify merchants have grown increasingly frustrated with the quality of service, a former support worker told The Logic. They trace the problem back to 2022 when Shopify laid off 10 per cent of its workforce with the service team amongst the hardest hit. The source estimated that hundreds of merchant support staff were laid off at that time, with many more following in smaller batches since. 

In May 2023, Shopify laid off a further 20 per cent of its staff, including some support workers. Specialized teams felt the brunt of those cuts, the source said, meaning front-line support workers no longer had enough expert assistance to handle more complicated queries from merchants. Shopify has continued to cut staff, with executives telling analysts how AI use helps it keep lower staff numbers.

One former support worker, who now uses Shopify as a merchant, cited a “lack of human support” and having “to self-serve” as major issues with using the company’s technology for e-commerce.

Sources said Shopify has also outsourced some of its merchant support work to third parties, some outside Canada and the U.S., a process that started well before the introduction of the AI support chatbot but that has ramped up in recent years.

The use of AI for merchant support was part of an effort called “Code Yellow,” a project launched in the first half of 2023 to turn around Shopify’s floundering support division. The plan was to use AI to “eliminate all the low-hanging fruit questions” by putting them through a chatbot, said one of the former Shopify merchant support workers. “And now, in order to get in touch with a human at all, you have to go through this AI.” Executives haven’t been shy about this plan, sharing the vision with analysts on earnings calls. 

As far back as the summer of 2023, an AI chatbot appeared on Shopify’s help page for merchants, seemingly replacing a button that allowed them to contact a human support worker. Another former Shopify staffer said moves like this were a stark contrast to how Shopify had typically handled merchant support, with the firm previously having a team of several hundred so-called gurus scattered across Canada who were all just a phone call away.

Shopify also trained a version of ChatGPT on its internal documentation and then asked support staff to use the AI system to help merchants, one of the former staffers said. They were asked to use ChatGPT “for everything,” including writing emails and checking grammar.

The focus on using AI for support is part of a broader mandate from Shopify leadership to put the technology at the forefront of its work, a position made public by CEO Tobi Lütke in April.

As some merchants struggle with Shopify’s new AI-powered support service, the company’s earnings have grown considerably. In 2024, revenue grew 26 per cent even as the firm’s head count fell by 200 people. “We think this speaks, in part, to the success it’s had in leveraging AI for internal efficiency,” said Thanos Moschopoulos, managing director of equity research on technology for BMO Capital Markets.

Martin Toner, managing director of institutional research, growth and innovation at ATB Capital Markets, said that merchant success was “critical” to Shopify’s business—but that didn’t negate the use of AI to make things more efficient. “That is their raison d’être, and having good customer service has to be important,” he said. Though, he added, that service doesn’t have to be provided by humans.