Shopify's new Canvas tool uses its Sidekick agent to let merchants build and customize online stores conversationally, with changes rendering live.
Shopify debuted Canvas, a store-building interface where merchants describe what they want and watch Sidekick, Shopify's AI agent, construct the site in real time. It replaces manual theme editing and drag-and-drop builders with natural-language commands.
The launch extends Shopify's broader push to put AI agents at the center of merchant tooling, following earlier Sidekick features for operations and customer service.
Commerce platforms are racing to make AI the default interface for setup and management, not just customer-facing chat — lowering the skill floor to launch a store shifts competitive pressure onto agencies and freelance developers. For merchants, speed to launch becomes a differentiator Shopify can now claim over Wix, Squarespace, and BigCommerce.
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