# Shopify CEO warns AI is creating more work, not less

> Tobias Lütke says employees use AI to quickly produce low-quality work that burdens colleagues instead of helping them.
- Title: Shopify CEO warns AI is creating more work, not less
- Summary: Tobias Lütke says employees use AI to quickly produce low-quality work that burdens colleagues instead of helping them. AI's real value comes from making…
- Keywords: shopify, tobias lütke, artificial intelligence, workplace productivity, ai tools, employee responsibility, large language models, business, technology, CEO, warns, creating
- Source: Business Insider — https://businessinsider.com/shopify-ceo-ai-slop-grenades-can-make-work-harder-2026-9
- Author: Ben Shimkus
- Published: 2026-09-17T09:33:01.279+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: shopify, tobias lütke, artificial intelligence, workplace productivity, ai tools, employee responsibility, large language models, business, technology
## AI isn't always making work easier
Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke says AI helps employees produce more material quickly, but without checking if it's useful or correct. This creates problems for everyone.
## Meet the 'slop grenades'
Lütke calls low-quality AI outputs 'slop grenades' that people toss at each other. Someone might send a long AI-written email, forcing the recipient to use another AI tool just to summarize it.

> We call those 'slop grenades' that people toss at each other. And that's definitely a bad thing.
## The compression problem
The cycle of AI-generated content requiring AI summarization is wasteful. Lütke asks: 'Why did we invent decompression and recompression? This is terrible.'

> Why did we invent decompression and recompression? This is terrible.
## Shopify's own AI success
Shopify has embraced AI aggressively, rolling out tools for agents. Internally, the company's AI agent River handles possibly half of all production code pull requests.
## When AI actually adds value
AI is most valuable when it makes people's thinking clearer and more concise. It's least valuable when it adds low-quality work to a coworker's desk.

> Humans take responsibility. Machines can help us take more responsibility because they can inform us better.
## Key takeaway

AI's real value comes from making thinking clearer and more responsible, not from generating more content faster.