Shopify President Harley Finkelstein has shared how artificial intelligence can help entrepreneurs who want to start and grow businesses.
He believes the emergence of AI carries lessons for founders far beyond Silicon Valley, including those building companies in Nigeria.
Speaking to Jim Cramer on CNBC’s “Mad Money” on Wednesday, Finkelstein described the current moment as “the golden age of entrepreneurship.” He said AI tools are lowering the barriers that once kept small business owners from competing with established brands.
“AI is kicking entrepreneurship into overdrive,” Finkelstein told Cramer. “This is going to be the golden age of entrepreneurship, and Shopify is powering it.”
Finkelstein said there was a sharp rise in customers finding Shopify stores through AI platforms. Traffic and orders arriving from tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini tripled over the past year, he said.
This could be an advantage for upcoming Nigerian entrepreneurs who often struggle to compete with bigger brands in search results. According to Finkelstein, AI search benefits smaller merchants the most.
“AI channels like ChatGPT and Gemini, they’re becoming incredibly powerful discovery engines for Shopify stores,” he said. “When you look at AI search, it is particularly helping smaller brands that form the long tail of commerce.”
Finkelstein’s three practical takeaways:
1. Use AI-powered discovery tools to reach customers who don’t rely on traditional search.
2. Focus on niche products rather than competing head-on with dominant brands.
3. Adopt AI assistants early to speed up the path to a first sale.
He backed this with a figure: 75% of AI-driven purchases during the quarter came from product categories outside the top 100 best-selling items. This suggests independent merchants, including those running niche or locally focused businesses, can now reach buyers who might otherwise only find large, established retailers.
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Finkelstein also spoke about Shopify’s AI assistant, Sidekick, which handled 34 million conversations in the second quarter. He said merchants who use Sidekick while setting up their stores tend to reach their first five sales faster.
AI tools are worth adopting early for entrepreneurs, as this offers a concrete data point. Faster early sales can determine whether a venture survives its first months.
“Every 26 seconds, a brand new entrepreneur gets their first sale on Shopify,” Finkelstein said. “The fact that Sidekick is helping more merchants become more successful faster is really, really important.”
