A year ago, "using AI with Shopify" mostly meant pasting product details into ChatGPT and pasting a description back. Now an AI assistant can read your live store data and act on it: check stock, pull sales numbers, create a discount code, build a collection.
There are four different ways to do that, they overlap, and Shopify's naming doesn't make the differences obvious. This is the map. For each option: what it is, what it's good at, and when to pick it. Then a task-by-task table, and the list of things no AI option will do.
The four options at a glance
| Option | Where it lives | Setup | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sidekick | Inside your Shopify admin | None | Questions and tasks while you're in the admin |
| Shopify Magic | Buttons inside admin screens | None | Writing and image work on the thing in front of you |
| Shopify Flow | An app in your admin | Install Flow | Things that should happen without you asking |
| Connected AI tools | Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and others | A few minutes | Store work as part of bigger projects |
1. Sidekick: the assistant in your admin
Sidekick is Shopify's own assistant. It's in the admin, reads your store data, and answers in conversation. Ask it for last week's top products, which items are low on stock, or a discount code for email subscribers. When a request would change something, it prepares the change and you approve it.
Pick it when you're already in the admin and want an answer or a quick task done without clicking through screens.
Know that it only works where it lives. You can't bring your own documents, spreadsheets, or email into the conversation the way you can with a general assistant.
Start with how to use Shopify Sidekick and the prompts that save time.
2. Shopify Magic: AI built into the screens
Magic isn't a chat. It's a set of AI features inside the admin pages you already use: a button that drafts a product description from a few keywords, tools that edit a product photo's background, suggested replies and subject lines.
Pick it when you're working on one thing, like a single product, and want help with the words or the image right there.
Know that it does one small job at a time. It won't run a report or make a change across your catalog.
More in what Shopify Magic is and what it includes.
3. Shopify Flow: automation, now drafted by AI
Flow runs workflows: when this happens, check that, then do the other. Tag high-value orders. Email you when stock runs low. Hide a product when it sells out.
It used to mean learning triggers and conditions. Now you can open Flow, open Sidekick, and describe what you want. Per Shopify's changelog, Sidekick drafts the workflow into the editor and nothing runs until you review and activate it.
Pick it when the job needs to happen whether or not you remember to ask. A chat assistant checks your stock when you prompt it. A Flow watches it at 3am.
Know that workflows with advanced logic or custom code may still need manual editing.
4. Connected AI tools: Claude, ChatGPT, and the rest
This is the newest option. Shopify maintains official integrations for seven AI tools: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity, Muse, and Microsoft Copilot. You install each from inside the AI tool, approve access in your admin, and from then on the assistant can work with your store data.
With the Claude and ChatGPT integrations, that covers:
- Reading: products, collections, inventory by variant and location, recent orders, customers, and analytics
- Changing (with write access): creating and updating products, building collections, setting inventory, creating percentage-off discount codes
Access is read-only until you approve more, and the assistant can't exceed the permissions of the staff account that connected it.
Pick it when the Shopify task is one part of something larger. Planning a sale with last year's numbers, your margin spreadsheet, and a draft email, all in one conversation. Or when you simply live in Claude or ChatGPT all day and want your store there too.
Know that the data you share goes to the AI provider under its terms, not Shopify's. That's worth five minutes of reading before you connect: is it safe to connect AI to your Shopify store?
Setup guides: Claude and ChatGPT. If the term MCP keeps coming up and you're not sure which kind applies to you, see Shopify MCP explained for merchants.
Which option for which task
| Task | Best option | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Check stock on a product | Sidekick, or a connected tool | Check inventory with AI |
| Get alerted when stock runs low | Flow, drafted by Sidekick | Check inventory with AI |
| Create a discount code | Sidekick, or a connected tool (percentage-off only) | Create discount codes with AI |
| Review your existing discount codes | The admin's filters, with AI to reason about stacking | Audit your discounts |
| Look up an order or tracking | Sidekick, or a connected tool | Look up orders with AI |
| Answer a sales question | Sidekick, or a connected tool | Ask AI about your sales |
| Fill in missing product data | A connected tool, working from a CSV export | Fill missing product data with AI |
| Write SEO titles and meta descriptions | A connected tool, working from a CSV export | SEO titles and meta descriptions with AI |
| Write image alt text | Media editor suggestions, or a CSV with a vision-capable assistant | Alt text with AI |
| Build a customer segment | Sidekick | Customer segments with AI |
| Run a daily store check | Sidekick, or a connected tool | Morning store check with AI |
| Write one product description | Shopify Magic | Magic descriptions |
| Edit a product photo | Shopify Magic | Magic image editing |
| Tag orders or customers automatically | Flow, drafted by Sidekick | Build Flow automations with AI |
| Change tags, prices, or status on many products | Sidekick, or a connected tool for small batches | Bulk edit products with AI |
| Prepare for a big sale | A connected tool, plus Flow | BFCM prep with AI |
| Refund, cancel, or edit an order | None. Use the admin. |
Not sure which assistant to start with? See Sidekick vs Claude vs ChatGPT. Want prompts to copy? See 25 prompts for a connected Claude or ChatGPT.
What no AI option will do
Some actions stay with you, by design. Shopify's considerations page says connected AI tools can't do these even with write access:
- Issue refunds, cancel or capture orders, mark orders paid, or process returns
- Create or adjust gift cards
- Change your plan, payments, taxes, or domains
- Edit, publish, or delete your live theme
Through the Claude and ChatGPT integrations specifically, orders and customer records are read-only, discounts are percentage-off codes only, and existing discount codes can't be edited.
There's a softer limit too. Bulk changes run one item at a time, and a large batch can stop partway. For anything touching hundreds of products, a CSV import or the admin's bulk editor is still the dependable route.
Wondering what all this costs? Most of it is already in your plan. See what AI for Shopify costs.
Three habits that make all of them work better
Be specific. Name the metric, the product, the dates. "How are sales?" gets a vague answer from any of these tools. "Net sales by product type for the last 30 days" gets a table.
Read before you approve. Every option asks for confirmation before a change. That only protects you if you read what you're confirming. A discount at the wrong percentage is your problem, not the tool's.
Verify in the admin. After any change that touches price, stock, or discounts, look at it in the admin. Shopify doesn't review what an AI tool does on your behalf.
Where to start
If you've never used any of this, the order I'd suggest:
- Ask Sidekick three questions about your sales and stock. Zero setup, zero risk.
- Have Sidekick draft one Flow, such as a low-stock alert. Review it, then turn it on.
- Connect Claude or ChatGPT read-only and try it on order lookups and sales questions.
- Approve write access for one task, like a discount code, and check the result in the admin.
That's an afternoon, and by the end you'll know which of these belongs in your week.
The AI you don't control
Everything above is AI working for you. There's another group of AI assistants reading your store: the ones your shoppers use. When someone asks ChatGPT or Gemini for a product like yours, it reads your catalog from the outside and decides whether to recommend you.
Both groups depend on the same thing, which is how complete and clear your product data is. Thin data gives your own assistant weak answers and gives a shopper's assistant a reason to pick another store. We lay out the connection in your AI assistant and your shoppers' AI read the same catalog, and cover the shopper side in how AI shopping assistants find your Shopify store, and the free AI readiness checker shows what they can read from yours in about a minute.
Comments
Every comment here comes from a verified email. Write yours, confirm from your inbox, and it's live.
Loading comments…