Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke: AI agents earn basis points — need tens of millions of users to work
rohanpaul_ai · x · 2026-10-30
Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke argues an AI agent like Meta's Muse can grow more valuable to users daily while its maker earns only basis points — not 2% of purchases, but a tiny fraction of 1%.
He uses Visa as the analogy: Visa's $40B fiscal 2025 net revenue is roughly 29 bps of its $14T payments volume, proving tiny fees work only at network scale. Applied to an average US household spending $81,905/year, 0.29% is about $235.
Takeaway: the agent is highly valuable to you while earning its maker at most $235/year from you — savings stay with users, and the maker needs tens of millions of users to make the math work.
Related event: Shopify CEO on Agentic Commerce: AI Shopping Disrupts Ads(2 posts)→
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