Shopify Announces New AI Store Builder and More

Shopify announced a slew of new AI-powered features through its semiannual update publication “Editions,” named “Horizons, Summer ‘25 Edition.” Among other updates, the announcement includes the release of a new modular theme optimized for use alongside Shopify’s AI tools.

According to the company’s blog post, its AI-powered block editor can generate new site sections based on a simple description of what you want them to do. One of the newly announced themes, Horizon, is optimized to offer a completely AI-powered online shopping experience.

“With [Horizon], AI is baked right in to help you customize your store to your exact vision. Just describe what you’re looking for and AI will whip up a custom Theme Block that brings your vision to life. This gives you the power to create almost any layout,” reads the announcement post.

Shopify is the latest in a growing list of popular web builders and e-commerce platforms to integrate AI into their building processes. In March, hosting company Hostinger launched an AI-powered chatbot capable of building simple web apps entirely from prompts. Earlier this month, web-building platform Wix announced a suite of AI tools to assist with the web-building process.

Beyond the new theme block builder, the platform also announced improvements to its proprietary Sidekick AI assistant, giving it improved “reasoning abilities” to help merchants more easily interpret important business information.

An example offered by the company includes asking Sidekick more complex questions such as “Why did sales decline last month?” with the model delivering a “thorough analysis drawing from inventory levels, marketing campaigns, and seasonal trends – complete with detailed suggestions for improvement.”

The company also announced that Sidekick will have slight agentic capabilities, like being able to create customer segments, filter orders, and set up discount codes. The AI agent is now available in all 20 languages supported by the Shopify platform and comes with an included speech-to-text function that will allow users to “chat” with the assistant.

Additional Summer ‘25 Edition updates include a “Storefront MCP” (Model Context Protocol), which will allow users to build personalized AI agents for their store; improved image generation tools; updates to the traditional store builder, like block nesting for custom layouts and visually attractive tools like a scrolling text marquee; and 10 new themes for the Shopify theme store.