The Stack Overflow Podcast Every ecommerce hero needs a Sidekick
Jan 9, 2026
Join Vanessa Lee, VP of Product at Shopify, as she dives into the exciting intersection of AI and ecommerce. With a background in robotics, Vanessa shares insights on the development of Sidekick, Shopify's AI assistant that enhances merchant experiences. She discusses the critical role of human oversight in AI and the challenges faced when building these advanced tools. Plus, discover how Shopify aims to deliver personalized user experiences while balancing the needs of both merchants and developers.
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From Robotics To Shopify Product Lead
- Vanessa Lee started as a robotics/mechatronics engineer and learned to code in C++ and Java while building hardware projects.
- She joined Shopify nine years ago as a senior PM and saw the platform evolve from unversioned APIs to a mature developer platform.
AI As A Product Renaissance
- Sidekick represents Shopify's push to make AI a repeatedly valuable product feature rather than a demo.
- Vanessa describes this period as a renaissance after heavy investment in foundational architecture and evaluation.
Make Evaluations Your Spec
- Build robust evaluation sets and use LLMs to generate and grade synthetic data but always include human-edited ground truth.
- Invest time in creating negative cases so judges spot bad outputs and prevent hallucinations.