How Shopify & Google Cloud are shaping AI-powered commerce

Keith Shaw: Hi, everybody. Welcome to DEMO, the show where companies come in and show us their latest products and platforms. Today I’m joined by Jeff Tarullo, Partner Solutions Engineer at Shopify. Welcome to the show, Jeff. Jeff Tarullo: Hi, thanks for having me, Keith.

Keith: All right — what are you going to show us today? I think most people know who Shopify is, but maybe give us a quick refresher. Jeff: Absolutely.

Shopify has a deep partnership with Google Cloud. Our entire platform is built on Google Cloud infrastructure, and through that partnership we’ve been co-innovating around what the future of commerce looks like — especially with artificial intelligence.

Today, I’ll highlight a few of our joint offerings that demonstrate AI-powered commerce, including: Vertex AI Search for Commerce on a Shopify storefront Shopify Sidekick, powered by Google’s Gemini models Google conversational agents, also deployed on Shopify storefronts Keith: These days it seems like everything is AI — but who’s the actual customer here?

It’s not the shopper directly, right? Jeff: Correct.

The end user benefits from a better shopping experience, but the direct customer is really anyone running digital or e-commerce operations — store owners, technology leaders rationalizing their tech stacks, or day-to-day administrators managing products, orders, and customer service. Keith: And what problems are you solving for them?

Jeff: The overarching theme is delivering quick wins with AI. There was an MIT study earlier this year showing that 95% of AI pilots fail.

Our goal is to be a guide for merchants — making AI easy to deploy and profitable quickly, delivering ROI in days or weeks, not months. Keith: Without this, companies would be doing things manually — or trying to build custom solutions? Jeff: Exactly.

They’d either rely on outdated legacy technology, attempt custom builds that become obsolete quickly, or handle everything manually. Instead, with Shopify and Google, merchants can avoid that arms race and use constantly updated platforms. Keith: All right, let’s jump into the demo.

Jeff: We’ll start with Vertex AI Search for Commerce. Search is the second most important feature of an e-commerce site after checkout. About 50% of visitors use search, but historically only one in ten actually finds what they’re looking for. Traditional search offers autocomplete and basic recommendations.

What’s different here is that it’s built on Google’s search algorithms, utilizing insights from billions of real-world queries to understand user intent and deliver highly relevant results.

Jeff: More recently, Google added conversational search for Vertex AI customers.

Instead of just typing a keyword, shoppers can ask questions naturally, like, “What’s a good dress to wear on New Year’s Eve?” The agent then asks clarifying questions: long or short, cocktail or party dress, sequined or classic — and narrows thousands of products down to a handful of highly personalized options.

Keith: This works for both consumer retail and B2B commerce, right? Jeff: Exactly.

It can be apparel or something more industrial — replacement parts, components, and other B2B inventory where product discovery is even more complex. Keith: Can merchants tune these systems to push business objectives? Jeff: Yes.

Merchants can optimize for specific goals like promoting categories, increasing sales of priority products, or boosting average order value, while still leveraging Google’s core search intelligence.

Jeff: Next is Shopify Sidekick, our backend AI assistant for store operators. You access it directly from the admin dashboard.

Sidekick helps merchants: * Navigate complex admin interfaces * Locate settings quickly * Review orders and sales data * Identify high-value customers * Generate reports and promotions For example, you can type: “Take me to the last order placed,” and Sidekick immediately pulls up the correct order page.

Keith: So rather than clicking through menus manually, you go straight to your answer. Jeff: Exactly.

You might ask: “What’s the customer lifetime value of Jeff?” and Sidekick instantly analyzes purchase history, average order value, and frequency. Once you identify a top customer, you can create targeted promotions.

For example: “Create a 10% one-time discount for Jeff before the end of the month.” Sidekick generates the promotion in draft form, leaving a human in the loop to review before saving — so mistakes are avoided while still gaining major productivity improvements.

Jeff: We’re expanding Sidekick continuously. Last month we added an app recommendation engine. Merchants can ask for tools — like subscription apps — and Sidekick suggests vetted Shopify partners instantly.

Jeff: On the storefront side, we also offer Google conversational agents tuned for customer service scenarios. One of the most common support interactions is: “What’s the status of my order?” These are low-value transactions for human agents but necessary for customer satisfaction.

Our conversational AI handles them 24/7 at zero wait time.

Jeff: For example, a customer can say: “I placed an order earlier this week, received two boxes, but I think something’s missing.” The agent prompts for the order number, retrieves shipment data, and explains exactly which items shipped and which are still pending — completely resolving the issue without human escalation.

Jeff: Another example is refund inquiries. The agent checks order history and explains why an item was refunded — such as being out of stock — and offers further assistance.

This deflects high call volume, shortens resolution times from minutes to seconds, and allows support teams to focus on high-impact conversations.

Keith: Are all of these features available today? Jeff: Yes. Shopify Sidekick comes out of the box on all Shopify plans. For the Google Cloud features — Vertex AI Search and conversational agents — merchants simply coordinate with their Google Cloud representative for light configuration.

Implementation is fast: days or weeks, not months.

Keith: Where should people go to learn more? Jeff: Visit shopify.com/enterprise, where you’ll find our full commerce offerings and links to partners like Google Cloud.

Keith: Jeff Tarullo from Shopify — thanks for joining us and walking through the demo. Jeff: Thanks for having me. Keith: That’s going to do it for this week’s episode of DEMO. Be sure to like the video, subscribe to the channel, and drop your thoughts in the comments.

Join us every week for new episodes. I’m Keith Shaw — thanks for watching.