Shopify ‘26 Winter Editions: Tools for the Commerce Renaissance

In this episode of Future Commerce, Brian and Philip interview Mani Fazeli, VP of Product at Shopify, about the evolution and philosophy of AI in commerce. Mani discusses Shopify's approach to AI, emphasizing utility over flashiness and platforms over features, and introduces SimJim, a new research preview for simulating buyer behavior. The conversation explores how AI can assist new businesses, optimize existing channels, and the importance of change management within organizations. They also discuss the changing landscape of discovery and chat interfaces, the role of the Shopify catalog, and the balance between friction and frictionless experiences in commerce. Mani predicts that image generation and structured data will be key to fundamentally changing commerce in 2026.