Amazon’s recent earnings report reveals its fundamentally different approach to artificial intelligence compared to Shopify’s platform strategy. Amazon predominantly builds AI to optimize the experience of its core customer – the shopper, whereas Shopify builds AI to maximize performance for its customer – the merchant.Amazon’s AI is supply-centric, focused on operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. In its Q2 earnings report, the company noted it “introduced DeepFleet, an AI model that makes Amazon’s one million+ robots work smarter.” Amazon also uses AI for demand forecasting that factors in weather and local events, improving predictions by 10-20%, and developed “Wellspring,” a generative AI mapping system analyzing satellite imagery to pinpoint optimal delivery locations for couriers.This operational AI extends to customer-facing tools. During the Q2 earnings call, CEO Andy Jassy emphasized: “Our conviction that AI will change every customer experience is starting to play out as we’ve expanded Alexa+ to millions of customers [and] continue to see our shopping agent [Rufus] used by many millions of customers.” While Amazon has also developed some seller-facing tools like Project Amelia, the bulk of its AI development focuses on supply-side optimization. With over 2.5 billion monthly website visits in the U.S. alone, Amazon has demand in abundance. Thus, its natural tendency is to optimize supply chains and customer satisfaction to maximize profitability from that existing traffic.Shopify’s AI is demand-centric, focused on helping merchants generate sales and optimize their businesses. Shopify brands its merchant-facing AI features under “Shopify Magic,” which creates product descriptions, email campaigns, and marketing content. The company’s Sidekick AI assistant helps merchants with store management tasks, while AI-powered tools automatically categorize products and suggest replies in customer conversations. These approaches reflect each company’s fundamental relationship with sellers. For Amazon, sellers are a means to infinite selection that serves its customers. Almost one million new sellers join every year and are essentially replaceable sources of inventory. Shopify serves only merchants, so every AI tool exists to help sellers succeed because Shopify’s profitability depends on merchants generating and converting demand.Amazon uses AI to manage massive supply chain complexity and help customers find products, while Shopify uses AI to help merchants create better content and drive demand. Amazon’s AI asks, “How do we deliver faster and help customers discover products?” Shopify’s AI asks, “How do we help merchants sell more?”The numbers reflect these priorities. Amazon’s $167.7 billion in Q2 revenue came with operating income of $19.2 billion, up 31% year-over-year, powered by efficiency gains from AI-driven operations. Shopify’s $2.68 billion in Q2 revenue grew 31% year-over-year, with merchant solutions representing 76% of total revenue, up from 72% in Q2 2024.The philosophical difference comes down to control. Amazon’s supply-centric AI optimizes what Amazon controls – warehouses, delivery, product recommendations – reinforcing its journey toward retail infrastructure dominance. Shopify’s demand-centric AI optimizes what merchants control – product listings, marketing content, customer conversations – reinforcing its role as the platform enabling millions of merchants to compete against that very infrastructure.