Shopify is asking some of its customer-support team members to test a translation bot powered by OpenAI's technology, weeks after a round of layoffs in May.
This move is the latest in a series of AI experiments in the support division, which troubleshoots issues for Shopify's millions of merchants. The new tool, which employees are expected to begin testing this month, is a bot that translates chat conversations from multiple supported languages into English. The bot is built directly into Shopify's internal chat tool, called Athena.
Shopify currently employs workers who do this translation work manually. Some staff members are being asked to test the bot and provide feedback on the accuracy of its translations, prompting concern that fewer employees will be required to do this work in the future, according to a source familiar with the matter.
"This is a significant step in this space, ensuring merchants can receive support in their preferred language, on their preferred channel at any time of day — without needing to communicate in a secondary language or translate their message into English — increasing their access to language support across the globe," read an internal email from Jen Bebb, the director of merchant and product support at Shopify.
"For advisors, leveraging AI for translations will simplify and streamline work, allowing merchant conversations to be smoother and more seamless," the internal note continued.
Shopify's first round of layoffs last July hit its support division hard, and the company conducted a second round of layoffs in May. The second round affected 20% of the workforce, or more than 2,000 people, across Shopify.
Shopify representatives did not return Insider's request for comment on this story.
Shopify executives have spoken more frequently about the company's plans to use AI throughout its business. Its support staff already has the ability to use AI-generated template email responses to merchant inquiries. The tool scans existing documents and articles to generate answers to merchants' questions.
In March, Shopify launched a ChatGPT-powered shopping assistant for its Shop app. The bot can recommend products sold by Shopify merchants based on shoppers' answers to a series of questions. It also recently launched a tool called Shopify Magic, which uses generative AI to write product descriptions.
"We believe that we are in the early innings of unlocking the true power of AI, not only for our merchants and their customers but also for Shopify," Harley Finkelstein, Shopify's president, said during the its first-quarter earnings call in May.
In his note about the company's May layoffs, CEO Tobi Lütke wrote that the tech industry is now "at the dawn of the AI era."
"Shopify has the privilege of being amongst the companies with the best chances of using AI to help our customers," he wrote.
Shopify's support team underwent several changes this year. In March, executives declared a "code yellow" for the division, saying it needed to improve customer-service levels "that have deteriorated beyond acceptable ranges."
"Calling a code means something needs our urgent and immediate attention to prevent irreversible loss of trust with our merchants," Clovis Cuqui, Shopify's vice president for merchant acceleration, wrote in an explanation of the code yellow on Shopify's workplace web page on March 1. "Code Red is the most urgent and most severe. Code Yellow is a preemptive intervention to make sure we don't ever need a Code Red."
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