Sidekick and Canvas: putting Shopify's AI to work without losing control
6 min read
Sidekick used to answer questions. In Fall '26 it does the work: it plans multi-step changes, applies them after one approval, writes code, researches your market and tests its own ideas. Shopify reports daily Sidekick sessions up 4.2x year on year. Used well, it's a capable junior team member. Used carelessly, it's a quick way to make 400 product descriptions worse at once.
This post is part of our Shopify Editions Fall '26 series. For the full picture, start with Shopify Editions Fall '26: what UK brands should actually act on.
What Sidekick can now do
- Bulk changes from one plan: ask it to rewrite descriptions across a collection, approve the plan once, and watch it apply each change.
- Code, calculate and search the web, and remember your instructions across conversations.
- Pulse recommendations on your admin home: up to five suggested actions drawing on your sales data, the apps you use and web research on your market. Pulse needs recent sales activity and Shopify Network Intelligence switched on.
- Tested recommendations (early access): for desktop theme changes meant to lift add-to-cart, Sidekick builds the change into an unpublished copy of your theme and SimGym runs simulated shopping sessions against your live theme. Only changes that win show "Tested by Sidekick".
- Admin jobs: create or edit draft orders with changes highlighted, explain why a payout came in lower or what's driving chargebacks, and give product-level pricing advice from Shopify Smart Pricing.
- Checkout: build and tune customisations in the checkout editor and the Checkout Blocks app.
- Everywhere: a floating chat on every page of the redesigned admin.
Canvas: the new way to edit your store
Canvas shows your whole store in one view, lets you zoom into any detail, and puts Sidekick alongside you to turn ideas into custom design. Shopify claims it gets stores from no theme to launch 20% faster. It's built on Shopify's new theme architecture, so check your current theme supports it before planning around it. Sidekick's tested recommendations only work on Canvas-compatible themes too.
Teach Sidekick your theme
The most useful developer-facing change for merchants is two optional files at the root of your theme. AGENTS.md and DESIGN.md explain how the theme is built and record its design intent. Sidekick reads them before it changes your theme in Canvas, and can update DESIGN.md when you ask for a new stylistic direction.
The same files guide your developers' own coding agents and sync through Shopify CLI and GitHub, so the rules stay consistent wherever the work happens. If an agency built your theme, ask it to write them. It's the cheapest way to stop AI edits drifting from your design system.
Where to keep a human in the loop
- Read every plan before approving. One approval can cover hundreds of changes, and bulk copy edits can quietly undo SEO work.
- Treat untested suggestions as hypotheses. A card without "Tested by Sidekick" didn't beat your live theme. Simulated shoppers aren't your shoppers either, so confirm winners with a real A/B test using a rollout experiment.
- Publish deliberately. Tested changes arrive as an unpublished "[Sidekick] Suggested theme". Preview it, and don't publish theme changes while a Black Friday rollout is scheduled.
- Check the numbers. Use Sidekick's payout and pricing explanations as a starting point, then verify them against your Payments activity report.
- Use the audit trail. A filterable admin activity log, coming soon, will show which person or app changed what.
A sensible rollout for a small team
- Make one person responsible for Sidekick, and review what Network Intelligence shares before switching it on.
- Add AGENTS.md and DESIGN.md to your theme.
- Start with low-risk, reversible jobs: reports, draft orders, building collections, image alt text.
- Move on to bulk content and theme changes once you've seen a few plans through end to end.
Book a Sidekick coaching session: a working session with your team, on your own store: the prompts that work, what to delegate and what to check.
More in our Shopify Editions Fall '26 series
- Shopify Editions Fall '26: what UK brands should actually act on
- Checkout, payments and fraud: what Fall '26 changes before and after Black Friday
- Agentic commerce on Shopify: getting your products sold inside ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude
- Selling from the UK to the EU and Nordics: the Fall '26 Markets and shipping updates
- Fall '26 for developers: what to fix in your theme and apps before the 2027 deadlines