Shopify Launches ‘Campaign Autopilot’ That Automates Ads

Shopify has launched Campaign Autopilot, a new AI-powered marketing tool that allows merchants to create, manage, and run advertising campaigns directly from their Shopify admin dashboard.

According to Shopify, merchants set a monthly budget, connect their marketing channels, and define approval settings. The system then creates campaigns, distributes spend across channels, and adjusts activity based on performance.

How Campaign Autopilot Works

Campaign Autopilot starts by connecting available marketing channels. Merchants can either connect existing Meta advertising accounts or create new ones directly from Shopify.

Once channels are connected, merchants choose a monthly budget. The system then distributes that budget across approved channels and automatically pauses campaigns once spending reaches the set limit.

The merchant sets rules that define how much the system can do on its own, from approving every campaign to letting it act with less oversight. After setup, Campaign Autopilot generates campaigns and reallocates spending based on performance signals. It builds a plan, places budget where it sees opportunity, and changes course when a campaign underperforms. The merchant can reject a recommendation, change the budget, or pause at any point.

The Channels It Covers

At launch, Campaign Autopilot runs across Meta ads, Shop Campaigns, and Shopify's email automations. Through Shopify Messaging, the system can recommend and build automated email sequences, including abandoned cart and abandoned browse campaigns.

Shop Campaigns, available in the U.S. and Canada, allows merchants to promote products across Shop and related advertising inventory, including channels connected to the Shop ecosystem.

Shopify says support for ChatGPT Ads, Microsoft Advertising, and Snapchat is on the way, with Microsoft Advertising expected to arrive in July.

Campaign Autopilot also connects with Shopify’s AI assistant, Sidekick. Merchants can ask Sidekick about campaign recommendations, trigger actions related to Campaign Autopilot, and review marketing performance from within Shopify.

Orchestrating Budget Across Platforms

The design separates Campaign Autopilot from single-platform automation. Meta's Advantage+ and Google's Performance Max optimize spending within their own ecosystems. Autopilot instead coordinates budget across several channels at once and moves money toward whatever is working.

Shopify says it draws on patterns from the millions of stores on its platform to judge which channels tend to drive orders for a given category, region, and stage of growth. That cross-channel coordination, rather than any single creative tool, is the product's main distinction.

Meta moved in a related direction this month with new AI ad-creation tools, and the wider market is shifting toward systems that automate the planning and running of campaigns.

What Autopilot Will Not Do

According to the platform, Campaign Autopilot uses a merchant's existing product images and catalog rather than generating AI creative, so ads use the store's own assets. It creates separate campaigns and does not change ads a merchant is already running.

Shopify says it cannot guarantee specific results and that the system needs time to learn which audiences, channels, and ads perform. The Marketing section of the admin is now named "Growth," where merchants can run campaigns automatically or manage tasks manually.

Campaign Autopilot is available now in early access and is free on paid Shopify plans, with merchants paying only for the ad spend itself.