Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke has introduced the term slop grenades to describe unverified content generated by AI. This refers to emails, code, and documents sent by employees without human review, which forces colleagues to perform additional quality control.
In April 2025, Shopify made AI usage a baseline expectation for all staff. The company integrated AI proficiency into performance evaluations and required teams to demonstrate that tasks could not be completed using AI before requesting new resources or headcount.
Lütke emphasized that while AI tools are mandatory, employees remain responsible for the output. The company noted that 50% of pull requests involve AI, raising concerns about technical debt and bugs introduced by unverified code that may outweigh productivity gains.
The company is now focusing on balancing its AI mandate with stricter quality standards. While the requirement to use AI remains in effect, Lütke is stressing that staff must take full ownership of the accuracy and completeness of any AI-generated work.
