Tobi Lütke, the CEO of Shopify, just dropped one of the clearest and most powerful memos I’ve seen on what it really means to be an AI-first company.
No buzzwords. No fluff. Just a direct blueprint for how he expects every Shopify employee to operate in the age of AI.
If you’re a Chief Product Officer (CPO) at a company where your CEO is thinking along similar lines – here’s what you can do to get ahead.
In this article, we’ll break down:
- What it means to be AI-first, according to Tobi
- What you should do next as a CPO
- And how to prove – without a shadow of doubt – that your team is operating at an AI-native level
Let’s get cracking.
CEO’s Blueprint for an AI-First Company
Tobi Lütke didn’t just share a point of view- he laid out a new operating system.
Here are the key ideas that define his AI-first blueprint. There is a lot to love in this blueprint, #4 and #5 are my absolute favorites:
- AI is foundational, not optional: Just like spreadsheets and documentation, using AI tools is now a core skill. If you’re not using AI to think, write, explore, or test, you’re behind.
- Performance is now about AI leverage: It’s no longer about output alone, it’s about how well AI is helping you 10X that output. Great talent plus smart AI use is the new productivity benchmark.
- Everyone means everyone: AI isn’t limited to engineers or tech teams. It’s expected across product, design, ops, leadership. Everyone is on the hook.
- Before asking for headcount, prove how AI can’t do it first: Before requesting more budget or headcount, you’re expected to show what AI can do. The new default is: try it with AI first.
- AI isn’t just in the product, it’s in the process: Being AI-first means building with it, working through it, and rethinking how teams operate with it. It’s embedded in the way the company functions, not just the features it ships.
This isn’t a side trend. It’s a shift in operating model. The companies that adopt it fastest will pull away the hardest.
How CPOs Turn the AI Mandate into a Movement
If your CEO is raising the bar, here’s how you can operationalize the mandate and get ahead.
Make AI Fluency a Performance Standard
Add AI to your team’s OKRs, peer reviews, growth plans, and promotion criteria. Treat AI skills like you would product sense or customer insight – a core competency.
Prioritize Skills Over Software
Invest in PM specific AI training. Set up mentorships and coaching programs. A mediocre tool in the hands of skilled PMs beats an advanced one no one knows how to use.
Create Space for AI
Launch internal demos, hack-a-thons, and show & tell events. Share popular prompt libraries. The more space for tinkering, the faster the adoption.
Lead by Example
Don’t just advocate for AI, personally use it. Brainstorm features, evaluate PRDs, interview synthetic users, draft documents etc. Your team will follow what you do, not what you say.
Appoint AI Enablers Inside Squads
Create roles dedicated to driving adoption. Give them the mandate to identify opportunities, codify best practices, and design smarter workflows. Product ops is a great place to start.
Reimagine Productivity
It’s not just about hours saved. It’s about how AI is helping PMs be more effective – from making better decisions, being more creative, to delivering a bigger impact. Treat AI like a force multiplier.
Most of your peers will treat AI as a side project. Don’t make that mistake.
Use the strategies above to make AI so central that your team feels that working without it is like showing up without your laptop. Do it well, and you won’t just keep up, you’ll impress your CEO.
How to Show (Without A Shadow of Doubt) That Your Team Is AI-First
Talk is cheap. Anyone can say they’re experimenting with AI.
Here’s how you prove it — make your team the case study, and stand out above your peers.
Show Results, Not Activity
It’s easy to show activity. To stand out, you need to show real results. Track and share hard outcomes: time saved, quality lifted, cycles shortened, and insights generated faster than before.
Use AI for Everything (Be Visible)
Summarizing emails is not going to cut it. Use AI to pressure-test assumptions, model edge cases, analyze competitors, validate hypotheses, and more. Include it in every sprint.
Help Others Build Their AI Muscle
When your team finds a new prompt, framework, or agent setup that works, don’t hoard it. Share it. Be the team others turn to. Better yet, become the train-the-trainer. Strong AI-native teams are open and thrive on cross-pollinating ideas.
Integrate AI Workflows With Other Teams
AI is blurring traditional boundaries. Use it to bring PMs, designers, and engineers closer. Create shared prompts, rituals, and workflows that make collaboration tighter, faster, and smarter.
AI Empower Your Team
Don’t ask for more PMs. Show what happens when one PM is AI-augmented. If one person can now deliver the output of three, make that visible – and help others do the same.
The goal isn’t to show activity.
It’s to make it obvious that using AI is simply how your team operates (even when no one is watching). Do that, and you’ll be leagues ahead of your peers.
Operationalizing the AI Mandate: A CPO Case Study
One of my clients — a $1B SaaS company — operationalized AI exactly as Tobi’s blueprint suggests.
Their CPO kicked things off with mandatory AI training, followed by an “AI Challenge” where teams competed to find high-impact use cases.
The results spoke for themselves – fast:
- 10,000+ hours saved within 3 months
- 40% faster execution on key workflows
- A shared library of 200+ prompts adopted across the product team
Their biggest unlock? User research. What used to take three weeks now takes two days. Thanks to AI-simulated users and automated analysis with Claude.
And they didn’t stop there. They made AI visible across the entire product development lifecycle – from writing requirements and building personas to brainstorming OKRs and creating prototypes.
This wasn’t a side project. It became their operating model and the benchmark others in the organization are now following.
Bottom Line: AI Transformation Is a Career-Defining Moment for CPOs
While most of your peers are still treating AI as an experiment, CEOs like Tobi are making it clear: this is a new way of working.
As a CPO, you have a unique opportunity. Not just to build AI products, but to redefine how your organization works.
By making AI usage reflexive, measurable, and visible, you won’t just meet your CEO’s mandate. You’ll create a competitive advantage that propels your entire company forward.
Your CEO is looking for someone to turn AI aspirations into organizational reality.
That someone should be you.
AI is Reshaping Product Management—Are You Ready?
CPOs who lean in are already seeing:
✔️ 20%+ productivity gains
✔️ Less rework, more focus
✔️ Bigger impact, delivered faster
🚀 Curious what this could look like in your org? Let’s chat.