Recessions Accelerate AI Adoption, and It Will Be Painful

Shopify CEO is basically telling people that layoffs are coming.

If AI adoption needed a catalyst, it wasn’t going to be new models, new RAG techniques, or new Ghibli memes—but a global recession.

Yesterday, Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke posted on X his memo to Shopify employees, mandating the use of AI in nearly every aspect of work. Most notably, every employee’s peer review will now be graded on their proficiency with AI, effectively making it impossible to “opt out” of using it. Every hiring decision will need to be justified by the question, “can AI do this”?

I believe the timing and tone of the memo have everything to do with the looming recession—and Tobi wanted to jump the gun with his AI mandate. I expect other CEOs to follow suit in the coming weeks and months.

This echoes an idea I’ve been writing about on Enterprise AI Trends—most recently before the current Nasdaq meltdown: recessions will act as an inescapable catalyst for AI adoption across multiple levels—individuals, organizations, industries, and even countries.