The creation of the policy is being pushed by the Shareholder Association for Research and Education on behalf of the United Church of Canada's pension plan, which is a Shopify investor.

They argue Shopify needs a policy because research has found generative AI systems may negatively impact human rights and agentic AI can cause misinformation, manipulation and erroneous automated transactions.

If Shopify had a policy, they say it would reassure shareholders of the company's governance and risk management controls.

Shopify's board, however, has encouraged shareholders to vote against the policy.

It says an AI policy is unnecessary because its contracts and terms of service set clear guardrails on how Shopify and merchant data may be used by AI systems.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 15, 2026.

Companies in this story: (TSX:SHOP)