Running a Shopify store involves more than just listing products and fulfilling orders. Between marketing, support, reporting, and operations, merchants are constantly juggling tasks. That’s where automation and AI can make a real difference.
Shopify now offers several tools — both built-in and third-party — that help store owners save time, reduce errors, and focus on growth. In this article, we’ll look at three of the most widely used automation tools in the Shopify ecosystem: Shopify Sidekick, Shopify Flow, and Arigato.
Each solves a different problem. Here’s how they work, and when to use them.
Shopify Sidekick: AI-powered help inside your admin
Sidekick is Shopify’s new AI assistant. It’s built directly into the Shopify admin and designed to help merchants get answers, complete simple tasks, and work more efficiently — using natural language.
With Sidekick, you can:
- Ask for help navigating the admin
- Draft product descriptions or summaries
- Generate ideas for discounts or marketing
- Get quick answers about store performance or settings
It’s especially helpful for solo merchants or small teams who don’t have time to search for settings, interpret reports, or write product copy from scratch. While Sidekick is still evolving, it’s already a useful companion for day-to-day admin tasks.
Sidekick isn’t built for automation on its own, but it does make certain parts of your workflow faster, especially when you need quick answers or content help.
Shopify Flow: rule-based workflow automation
Flow is Shopify’s built-in workflow tool. It’s available on all paid plans and helps you automate repetitive tasks using basic logic: triggers, conditions, and actions.
With Flow, you can:
- Tag a customer after they make a purchase
- Send yourself an alert when stock drops below a threshold
- Automatically archive risky or fraudulent orders
Flow is a no-code tool that runs directly in your admin. You can build simple automations using a visual editor — no development needed.
It’s not technically AI, but it plays a foundational role in workflow automation for Shopify stores. That said, it has clear limitations:
- You can’t push data to tools outside Shopify unless they’ve built a Flow connector
- It doesn’t support advanced triggers like customer updates or metafield changes
For basic use cases, Flow gets the job done. But as soon as your business processes become more complex, it starts to feel restrictive.
AI-powered automation apps built for scale
If you want more full control over how your workflows run, there are workflow automation Shopify apps that give you exactly that. The best workflow apps like Arigato Automation include both automation features and AI capabilities, making them a strong choice for growing stores that need more flexibility.
Arigato supports:
- AI-generated product descriptions using GPT
- Scheduled and delayed workflows
- Multi-step workflows with conditions, loops, and filters
- Sending HTML emails with custom logic and fallback support
- External integrations — like sending data to Twilio, Slack, Google Sheets, Airtable, ChatGPT, and others
- Full control over metafields, tags, customer segmentation, and operational tasks
While Shopify Flow helps with reactive workflows, workflow automation apps like Arigato are ideal for building systems that proactively manage your store. You can automate fulfillment alerts, loyalty tagging, backorder handling, team notifications, and more — all tailored to your store’s unique needs.
To help you get started, Arigato includes a Shopify workflow template library with over 300 examples. You can install, customize, and run these workflows without needing to build from scratch.
TL;DR You’ve got options for Shopify AI
If you’re asking, “What AI tools are there for Shopify?” — you’ve got options.
Shopify Sidekick helps with fast admin tasks and content generation. Flow gives you a way to automate simple actions across your store. And Arigato gives you the control, customization, and AI-enhanced logic to automate more complex processes across your entire business.
Choosing the right tool depends on your goals. But no matter where you start, adding automation to your store frees up time, improves consistency, and helps you grow without scaling your workload.
Ready to explore what’s possible? Arigato Automation is available on the Shopify App Store with a library of automation templates designed to help you move fast and automate smarter.