Shopify Editions: Enterprise Gets Serious, AI Gets Personal

Walking into Shopify Editions this year, something felt different. Past Shopify Editions were about bringing merchants closer to their customers, this year’s event hinted at something even deeper: bringing the platform closer to the enterprise with a major assist from AI. 

The Third and Grove team was onsite for the show, and while the main themes weren’t shouted from rooftops, they came through loud and clear for those tuned in. The foundations being laid are substantial. The product roadmap points toward a future that is mature, scalable, and hyper-intelligent. Here's what stood out.

A new foundation for enterprise

The biggest reveal from this year’s event was the new localhost and pre-production infrastructure aimed squarely at enterprise-grade merchants. Shopify’s platform has always been fast and flexible, but these new updates push it into a different weight class entirely.

A real staging environment is finally coming—moving changes from staging to production to live without the dreaded multi-tab workaround. This is a massive step for developer velocity and deployment. Finally!

Welcome to the team, AI

Let’s talk AI, because it’s not just a feature anymore. It’s a co-pilot.

You could feel the shift in energy when they demoed an AI tool to create custom blocks in the theme editor. It flawlessly built a floating product card display in 45 seconds, complete with UI configurators. From prompt to code, the system outputted production-ready Liquid, CSS, and JavaScript in seconds.

This wasn’t a gimmick. This was AI moving into its next phase.  AI isn’t just helping anymore. It's starting to contribute.

The goal? Write less code. Move faster. Spark more creativity. It’s not about replacing developers - it’s about amplifying what we can do. Say Hello to Sidekick and become friends!

Shopify's new AI support tool, Sidekick, is also stepping into the spotlight. But don’t think of it as just a smarter help desk bot—Sidekick is much more than that.

Built right into the Admin, Sidekick is a command center that supports:

• Product and collection creation
• Image generation and copywriting
• Store configuration and optimization suggestions
• File creation (with preferences in mind)
• Multilingual support in 20+ languages
• Real-time business recommendations

Admin Intents: The little things that change everything

One of the most exciting changes for us? Something deceptively small but deeply impactful: Admin Intents.

This feature solves a long-standing pain point—jumping between tabs to create or edit something mid-flow (like needing to make a collection while building a discount). Admin Intents now keeps you on the same screen, opening lightweight pop-ups to complete tasks without leaving your original context.

It’s smoother. It’s smarter. It’s how modern admin panels should work.

New horizons

New theme updates also dropped, along with the Horizon suite, Shopify’s latest free theme collection. While we’re sticking with Concept for now (still the right fit for our roadmap), it’s good to see:

• Interactive product cards
• Mega menus with live content
• Discounts visible in cart (!)
• Swatches, reviews, badges, reorder widgets
• Copy/paste sections across templates
• Improved transitions and color controls

The new theme foundation raises the baseline for customization, UX, and speed.

POS and the shifting DTC landscape

Another undercurrent of the event: the sea change happening in DTC. Shopify is expanding POS functionality in some serious ways—likely a response to brands blurring the lines between online and offline. The ability to create custom use cases and deeper integrations shows that Shopify is adapting, quickly, to an evolving commerce landscape.

The takeaway: embrace the tools

More than any one feature or update, this conference underscored one message: Embrace AI. Embrace automation. Embrace the tools that make work faster, more flexible, and more human.

Because the real story behind Editions this year isn’t about shiny features. It’s about the beginning of a new phase of commerce. And if we lean in, the possibilities are endless. Let’s get to work.