Thought partner. Researcher. Critic. Tutor. These are some of the roles that workers at the e-commerce platform Shopify should be using AI to fulfill, according to CEO Tobi Lütke.

He wrote a memo, posted on X this week, saying that before asking for increased human head count, teams must show that the new hire's work couldn't be done by AI.

You could say AI is pretty good at the three Rs: reading, writing and research. 

And that means it’s also good at “marketing, some light legal stuff. They work really well as a second opinion, as a second set of eyes on something,” said Wharton professor Ethan Mollick, author of the book “Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI.” 

Experimenting with AI for five to 10 hours helps workers figure out what it can help them do, he said. Lots of companies are providing AI tools to their employees and encouraging — or sometimes requiring — that they use them.

“But then the question is, ‘I've learned this for my company. Do I give this to the company? How do I get credit for that? And if I do end up, you know, letting the AI do my work, what happens to me and my friends then?’” said Mollick.

There are some jobs that could be at risk. Harvard labor economist David Deming has anecdotally heard that firms are slower to hire certain kinds of workers — think people who do payroll, billing or administrative support. And it probably doesn’t end there. 

“I don't think it's coming for everybody's job, but it's coming for parts of almost everybody's job,” he said.

Also, Deming points out that as good as AI may be now, this is the worst this technology will ever be. It’s just going keep getting better, so it’s best to be prepared.