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AI Content for Shopify: What Sidekick Makes and Its Limits

Updated , first published · 4 min read

Shopify’s built-in AI assistant, Sidekick, can draft blog posts, page text, product descriptions and Shopify Messaging emails, and generate images such as hero banners and blog illustrations, from any page of your admin. Everything it writes into a field is highlighted in purple for you to review, and generated images stay private until you click Save to files. Use it to draft one page at a time and add your own facts.

Text: blog posts, pages and emails

Open the Sidekick chat from any admin page, by text or voice, and ask it to write or edit text. It can fill in fields on the page you’re on, from your instructions or reference images, explain why it suggests something, and give you more options when you ask. Fields it fills are highlighted in purple, so you see the change before you accept it. Some pages also have a built-in Sidekick button that writes one field: product descriptions, blog posts, online store pages, Shopify Messaging emails and content in the theme editor.

Prompts work best when they carry the structure and the facts. Shopify’s own example is “Write a 600-word blog post about caring for wool sweaters, with an introduction, 3 sections, and a closing call to action”. Add what Sidekick can’t know: your product’s materials, the washing temperature you tested, the question customers ask most.

For emails, Sidekick can write and edit text, change the design (fonts, colors, buttons), generate images for the email, and recommend or create the customer segment to send to. A prompt such as “Draft an email campaign promoting @Winter collection in a supportive tone, and give me 3 subject line options under 50 characters” uses a collection mention.

Product descriptions have their own guide: AI product descriptions on Shopify.

Images

Sidekick generates images from a text prompt in three places: the Sidekick chat, the file picker (when you choose an image anywhere in the admin), and the file editor (to change an existing image). It can use up to 3 reference photos you upload (each under 5 MB, JPEG, PNG or WebP), refine images with more instructions, and let you download them.

What to know before you rely on it:

  • Generated images can be unexpected or low quality; you can report one that breaks Shopify’s policies.
  • An image is added to your store only when you click Save to files. Previewing doesn’t save it.
  • Generation limits depend on your plan and are shared by everyone on the store: a monthly limit that resets each calendar month, and a short-term limit that frees up gradually, often within a few minutes.
  • Shopify says it doesn’t support copyright or trademark infringement, so don’t prompt for other brands’ logos or characters.

Use generated images for backgrounds, banners and illustrations. Keep real photographs for products: a shopper buying a sweater needs to see the actual sweater.

Don’t automate publishing

In 2025 an automated pipeline on our own blog had an AI model publish posts around the clock, and those posts brought no customers we could trace. Looking back, three steps were missing, and each one is a step a person should own:

  1. Pick one searched question per page. In our case, posts written without a plan ended up competing with each other for the same searches.
  2. Add facts only you have. A screenshot, a price with the date you saw it, or the exact menu path makes a page worth reading; generated text tends to repeat general advice.
  3. Check before it goes live. A person confirms that each Shopify feature still works the way the page says.

So our rule for AI content, on this site and for any store: AI drafts, a person decides what goes live, one page at a time. Our guide to content marketing for Shopify covers how to pick the questions first.

A review checklist for AI drafts

Before you click accept on anything Sidekick wrote:

  • Every fact about your product is true: materials, sizes, care, delivery times.
  • Every Shopify instruction (menu names, steps, prices) matches the current Help Center.
  • The text answers the question in the first lines, in your words, not a generic introduction.
  • Nothing claims results you can’t show (“customers love it”, “best-selling”) or promises you don’t make.
  • Images show your real product, or are clearly illustrations.
  • One page, one question: you aren’t publishing a second page on a topic you already cover.

More guides on content and marketing are in the marketing and SEO hub.

Sidekick facts come from the Help Center pages on Sidekick and generating content with Sidekick, read on October 23, 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Can Shopify Sidekick write blog posts? Ask in the Sidekick chat or use the Sidekick button on the blog post page. The text it writes is highlighted in purple for you to review before you accept it.

Can Sidekick generate images for my store? Sidekick generates images from the chat, the file picker or the file editor. Images stay private until you click Save to files, and generation limits depend on your plan.

Is it safe to publish AI-written content automatically? We don’t recommend it. Our blog tried it in 2025, and it brought no customers we could trace. Use AI for drafts and publish each page after a person checks it.