Why Shopify Is Rebuilding Its Leadership to Stay Focused in the AI Era
Executive changes, divestments, and policy shifts aren’t signs of turmoil — they’re signals of deliberate strategic focus at scale as Shopify adopts a sharper, AI-driven vision.
Shopify is on a tear. Revenue is up, gross merchandise volume is climbing, and analysts are, for the most part, optimistic. But behind the numbers, something else is shifting, and fast. A wave of executive departures, structural reshuffles, and departmental realignments is reshaping the company’s upper tiers.
To the untrained eye, it might look like internal turmoil. But this isn’t churn. Shopify isn’t just changing people; it’s changing purpose. What began as a commerce platform for entrepreneurs is now repositioning itself as an AI-augmented, product-led operating system for modern retail. That transition requires subtraction: of distractions, of side quests, and, sometimes, of legacy structures.
Shopify’s decision to sell off its logistics division, redefine executive roles, and challenge every department to justify human headcount in an AI-first environment speaks to a company pursuing strategic clarity. It’s the paradox of transformation at scale: growth buys opportunity, but it also breeds complexity, and to stay sharp, something has to give.
For those watching from the outside, Shopify offers a valuable case study. Not in instability, but in the deliberate—and often difficult—work of aligning people, structure, and strategy as a company evolves.
The Surface-Level Story: Growth and Churn
By nearly every external metric, Shopify is thriving. In its latest quarterly earnings, the company beat expectations on both revenue and profit. Gross merchandise volume is healthy. Its stock is buoyant.
Yet over the past year, a series of high-profile departures have raised eyebrows. Chief Revenue Officer Bobby Morrison exited. Leadership within customer support and other operational functions was thinned or restructured. The company announced a major shift in the COO role, promoting General Counsel Jessica Hertz to lead operations.
On the surface, this could be read as instability. But Shopify has made no effort to disguise the moves. In fact, it has signaled the opposite: these changes are intentional, aligned with a redefinition of mission and focus.
Deliberate Subtraction: Strategy Drives Structure
CEO Tobi Lütke has framed much of this transition as subtraction. In 2023, Shopify sold off its logistics arm, including the Deliverr acquisition it had made just a year earlier. Lütke called logistics a "side quest" that had distracted the company from its "main quest" — building the best possible platform for merchants.
This theme of subtracting to focus recurs throughout Shopify’s internal and external messaging. The company eliminated or restructured management layers. It redefined roles at the top. It doubled down on product velocity. Each move reflects a consistent, if uncomfortable, idea: strategy must drive structure, not the other way around.
For digital executives leading complex organizations, this principle is familiar but hard to execute. As companies scale, roles ossify. Side projects accumulate. The path forward becomes cluttered. Shopify’s reset offers a reminder that subtraction is not failure, it's focus. And at pivotal moments in a company’s trajectory, it’s essential.
AI as Operating Principle, Not Add-On
One of the most revealing shifts inside Shopify is its approach to AI. This isn’t just about integrating AI into product features. It’s about rethinking how the entire organization functions. Reports suggest that teams are being asked to justify why roles should be filled by humans rather than AI. The company has quietly acquired several AI-native startups, not for their products, but for their talent. Customer support has been restructured with an eye toward reducing repetitive "toil" and increasing leverage.
This AI-first mindset changes how teams are staffed, how decisions are made, and how leadership is evaluated. For Shopify, it appears to be a core tenet of its next phase, not an experiment on the side.
Alignment vs. Attrition: The Culture Cost
But focus has a cost. Trimming distractions can also trim dissent. When companies pursue alignment aggressively, they risk narrowing their internal feedback loops. Some of Shopify’s leadership changes may reflect this tension: not every high-performing executive fits a tighter, AI-centric, product-first model.
There’s also the challenge of middle management. Reports suggest that Shopify has aggressively flattened layers, especially in functions like customer support. That can streamline decision-making, but it can also remove critical context and coaching.
Every strategic shift comes with organizational consequences. The question isn’t whether there’s attrition, but whether that attrition aligns with where the company needs to go.
Lessons for Digital Executives
For digital leaders watching Shopify, the lesson isn’t to fear turnover. It’s to interrogate what that turnover reflects. In this case, the exits aren’t a breakdown of leadership; they’re the outcome of leadership making harder, sharper decisions.
Strategy at scale means saying no. It means rebuilding teams to match a refined mission. It means inviting friction where necessary to avoid entropy. And when technology like AI changes the playing field, the structure of leadership must evolve alongside it.
Shopify may not be done transforming. But what’s clear already is that its leadership shifts aren’t detours, they’re the path.
Leigh Bryant
Editorial Director, Composable.com
Leigh Bryant is a seasoned content and brand strategist with over a decade of experience in digital storytelling. Starting in retail before shifting to the technology space, she has spent the past ten years crafting compelling narratives as a writer, editor, and strategist.