CEOs Are Telling Their Employees to Embrace AI—or Become Irrelevant

CEOs are urging their teams to embrace AI tools or otherwise be rendered obsolete—and they’re doing so publicly. First, Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke published on X what was intended to be an internal memo on the necessity of employees adopting AI. He posted the lengthy directive on social media because “it was in the process of being leaked and (presumably) shown in bad faith,” he wrote. The move seemed to inspire a bit of FOMO from Micha Kaufman, CEO of gig work marketplace Fiverr, who posted screenshots of a very similar corporate directive a day later. Kaufman says his Fiverr AI mandate was sent out via email to employees on Monday, making its timing almost identical to Lütke’s. On the topic of hiring, the men echoed each other. “It does not make sense to hire more people before we learn how to do more with what we have,” Kaufman wrote. “Before asking for more head count and resources, teams must demonstrate why they cannot get what they want done using AI,” Lütke said. The CEOs are imparting a similar message, presumably meant to spark a fire at their respective companies: AI is coming to reshape the global workforce, and with that, no job is safe from upheaval. It’s a message that has been resonating for a while, as fears of so-called AI agents capable of automating jobs descend on the corporate rank-and-file. Only now, though, top corporate leaders are publicly declaring the inevitable. As Lütke put it: “Using AI effectively is now a fundamental expectation of everyone at Shopify.” He argued that not using AI amounts to stagnation. Performance reviews will now consider employees’ AI usage. “Stagnation is almost certain, and stagnation is slow-motion failure. If you’re not climbing, you’re sliding,” he wrote. Kaufman struck a somewhat alarmist tone, writing: “So here is the unpleasant truth: AI is coming for your jobs. Heck, it’s coming for my job, too. This is a wake-up call.” The Fiverr chief executive seemed to suggest that ignoring AI now means an inevitable battle for relevance later. “If you do not become an exceptional talent at what you do, a master, you will face the need for a career change in a matter of months. I am not trying to scare you. I am not talking about your job at Fiverr. I am talking about your ability to stay in your profession in the industry,” he wrote. Kaufman was unavailable to comment. It’s possible that corporate leaders are trying to squeeze every ounce of productivity out of their workforces, now that automating certain tasks is more accessible than ever. To be sure, Shopify is obsessed with tracking productivity: An internal tool at the company, GSD, tracks the status of every project. GSD, which stands for “get shit done,” is now inseparable from AI: “The prototype phase of any GSD project should be dominated by AI exploration,” Lütke’s announcement said. BY SAM BLUM @SAMMBLUM