How to Use Shopify Sidekick AI Assistant: Complete Tutorial
Imagine having an analyst, copywriter, and operations assistant available 24/7 inside your Shopify admin, for free. That is Shopify Sidekick: an AI-enabled commerce assistant, powered by Shopify Magic, that lives in your admin and combines conversational AI with direct access to your store data. It can pull analytics, draft content, fill forms, build automations, and surface insights, all while never changing anything without your approval. This complete tutorial is a step by step beginner guide to what Sidekick can do, how to access and use it, real example prompts, its limits, and a five-day plan to put it to work.
What You'll Learn:
- What Shopify Sidekick is and how it stays safe with your store
- The six core capabilities, from analytics to custom app generation
- How to access and set it up (spoiler: there is no setup)
- A real example of Sidekick diagnosing a store
- Pricing, plan availability, and key limitations
- A practical 5-day action plan to get started
What Is Shopify Sidekick?
Sidekick is an AI-enabled commerce assistant, powered by Shopify Magic, that lives inside the Shopify admin. It pairs conversational AI with access to your store data through a chat interface, reachable via the purple glasses icon in the admin top bar, the dedicated Sidekick page, or the mobile app. Two safety mechanisms matter most: it never modifies your store without explicit approval, and it respects existing staff permissions tied to admin roles.
Approve Before Save
Sidekick proposes actions but waits for your approval before saving anything. This guardrail also mitigates the risk of occasional imprecise answers on complex tasks, you stay in control of every change.
The 6 Core Capabilities
Sidekick performs six distinct functions across your store operations:
Analytics & Reporting
Generates ShopifyQL queries and builds charts for payments, web performance, fulfillment, and payouts, returning structured insights with diagnostic observations, not just raw dashboards.
Administrative Actions
Fills forms to create products, discounts, customers, companies, and marketing campaigns. Every action requires your approval before it saves.
Content Generation
Drafts product descriptions, blog posts, and emails, and generates up to 5 AI images per prompt through the integrated Shopify Magic tools.
Workflow Automation
Builds Shopify Flow automations from natural language. For example, "Tag every order over $200 as VIP" becomes an executable workflow.
Custom App Development
Generates small custom admin apps, available on Grow, Advanced, and Plus plans with hourly or weekly quotas.
Proactive Insights
Sidekick Pulse (launched December 2025) analyzes your store automatically and surfaces recommendations without you having to ask.
How to Access and Set It Up
There is no setup or configuration, simply click the purple glasses icon in your Shopify admin. Sidekick works across a wide range of contexts:
| Where / How | Details |
|---|---|
| Devices | Desktop, mobile app, and Apple Watch |
| Languages | 20 Shopify admin languages |
| Input | Text or voice |
| Screen sharing | Early access on desktop, for step-by-step guidance |
Sidekick in Action: A Real Example
In testing on a demo shop (Bearie Store), the prompt "Give me a weekly performance summary for my store" triggered Sidekick to work autonomously and accurately:
Prompt: Give me a weekly performance summary for my store.
Sidekick: Ran 5 analytical steps, queried sales, orders & sessions
Found the gap between traffic and conversions
Flagged a 77% bounce rate and 0% add-to-cart rate
Matched the actual analytics dashboard
Suggested next diagnostic steps
Notably, Sidekick independently executed five analytical steps, identified the precise problem (a gap between traffic and conversions), and recommended what to investigate next, behaving like an analyst rather than a search box.
Pricing and Availability
Sidekick is included free with every Shopify plan, with no separate subscription. Feature depth scales with your plan tier:
Basic Plans
Core analytics and content generation are available to get you started.
Grow, Advanced & Plus
Full access including custom app generation, with usage quotas on the heavier features.
Adoption is climbing fast: Shopify reported that weekly active shops using Sidekick grew 385% year over year, and merchants built more than 12,000 custom apps with it in a single quarter (Q1 2026).
Key Limitations
Knowing the boundaries keeps your expectations realistic:
No External Systems
Sidekick cannot access external tools like CRMs, ad platforms, or email apps. Third-party integration exists only in developer preview.
Diagnoses, Does Not Rebuild
It can flag an underperforming page but cannot redesign layouts or rebuild sections, you need a page builder for that.
Accuracy & Plan Limits
It may be imprecise on complex tasks (hence approve-before-save), heavier features like app generation carry quotas and plan requirements, and it never interacts with shoppers, only with you in the admin.
Sidekick vs. Shopify Magic
Shopify Magic is the umbrella name for the AI features embedded across Shopify, the sparkle icons that generate product descriptions, edit images, or suggest email subject lines inline. Sidekick is the conversational interface powered by those Magic tools, combining them with your store data for multi-step execution. Both are free, and you do not have to choose between them.
Getting Started: A 5-Day Action Plan
Day 1: Get a Baseline Report
Request a baseline performance report and save it as a recurring prompt for weekly monitoring.
Day 2: Delegate an Admin Task
Delegate one administrative task, such as creating a discount or organizing products, and review it before approval.
Day 3: Investigate a Problem Metric
Investigate a weak metric, for example ask why conversion rates remain low, then follow the data trail Sidekick opens up.
Day 4: Build a Workflow Automation
Describe a desired automation in plain language and let Sidekick build it through Shopify Flow.
Day 5: Act on the Findings
Act on the issues Sidekick identified by redesigning flagged pages using a specialized page builder, since Sidekick diagnoses but does not rebuild.
Key Insight:
Sidekick tells you what is underperforming; it does not rebuild the page. Treat it as your free in-admin analyst and operator, then pair it with a page builder like PageFly to execute the fixes it surfaces. Diagnosis plus execution is where the real conversion gains come from.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Shopify Sidekick free?
Yes. Sidekick is included free with every Shopify plan, with no separate subscription. Feature availability and usage limits vary by plan tier.
How do I access Shopify Sidekick?
Click the purple glasses icon in the top bar of your Shopify admin. No setup is required. It also works on the dedicated Sidekick page, the mobile app, and Apple Watch.
Can Sidekick redesign my product pages?
No. Sidekick diagnoses underperforming pages but cannot redesign layouts or rebuild sections. Use a page builder like PageFly to execute the fixes it identifies.
What is the difference between Sidekick and Shopify Magic?
Shopify Magic is the umbrella of embedded AI features (the sparkle icons). Sidekick is the conversational assistant that deploys those Magic tools with your store data for multi-step work. Both are free.
Does Sidekick make changes to my store automatically?
No. Sidekick never modifies your store without explicit approval and respects existing staff permissions tied to admin roles, so you review every action before it saves.
Sidekick Found the Problem, We'll Fix It
Sidekick tells you what is underperforming, our experts rebuild it. We design high-converting Shopify pages, set up automations, and turn Sidekick's insights into real revenue. Get a personalized plan for your store.
About the author
Odoo Practice Lead, Braincuber Technologies
Leads the Odoo practice at Braincuber. Has delivered Odoo ERP implementations, NetSuite/Tally migrations, and Shopify–Odoo integrations for US mid-market and D2C brands. Owns scoping, data migration, and go-live for every Odoo engagement.