Published by Craftshift | www.craftshift.com
Shopify’s AI assistant, Sidekick, just got a major upgrade and it’s one that every merchant, store owner, and e-commerce manager should be excited about. As of September 2025, Shopify Sidekick can now recommend, compare, and even install apps directly from the chat interface.
This isn’t just a cool AI feature. It marks a shift in how merchants interact with the Shopify App Store from browsing and guessing to personalized, intelligent recommendations that save time and boost sales.
In this post, we’ll cover:
- What Sidekick’s new app recommendation feature does
- How merchants can use it effectively
- Why it matters for Shopify store growth
- Real-world use cases and ideas
- How Craftshift helps you optimize your store post-install
What Is Shopify Sidekick and What’s New?
Shopify’s Sidekick is an AI-powered virtual assistant that lives inside the Shopify admin. Originally launched in 2024, Sidekick helped store owners with quick tasks like drafting emails, writing product descriptions, or explaining analytics.
But now, with the new app recommendation capability, Sidekick goes beyond answering questions and becomes a strategic advisor. Here’s what it can do:
- Recommend apps based on your store’s needs
- Compare similar apps with pros and cons
- Install apps directly from chat
- Tailor suggestions to your store size, industry, and goals
- Surface lesser-known, high-performing apps based on reviews and fit
This turns app discovery from a manual, time-consuming process into a guided, AI-enhanced experience.
Why Merchants Should Care: From App Fatigue to App Smartness
Let’s face it: the Shopify App Store has over 8,000 apps. Finding the right one feels like digging through a haystack, especially if you’re new to Shopify or managing a store solo.
Sidekick solves that.
Here’s how Sidekick’s app recommendation helps you:
- Saves hours of manual comparison
- Surfaces apps you might have never found
- Matches tools to your specific sales funnel, theme, or product catalog
- Reduces the risk of installing bloated or irrelevant apps
- Helps ensure app compatibility with your existing setup
Whether you’re looking for an upsell app, review platform, inventory sync, or image optimization tool, Sidekick narrows the search in seconds.
Use Case 1: “I Want to Upload Multiple Images Efficiently”
Let’s say you’re launching a new product collection or updating hundreds of product photos. Manually uploading and optimizing each image is time-consuming, error-prone, and not scalable, especially if you’re aiming for fast page load speeds and strong SEO.
So you open Sidekick and say:
“I want to upload multiple images efficiently.”
Sidekick understands your goal: you want a bulk image workflow that’s fast, reliable, and doesn’t compromise your store’s performance.
It recommends:
Smart Bulk Image by Craftshift Upload, compress, rename, tag, and optimize hundreds of product images at once. Built specifically for Shopify, this tool automates the entire process while preserving high-quality visuals and SEO best practices.
With Smart Bulk Image, you can:
- Upload entire image folders in one go
- Automatically apply descriptive alt text and filenames
- Can use next-gen formats like WebP for faster load times
- Ensure every image is SEO-optimized and mobile-ready
No more manual uploads. No more sluggish product pages. Just fast, optimized visuals at scale.
Want to try it? Visit www.craftshift.com and request a free demo of Smart Bulk Image.
Sidekick doesn’t just list apps; it matches features to your exact store setup and use case.
Use Case 2: “I Need Help With Product Reviews”
Reviews are critical for conversion, but many merchants struggle to pick the right app that doesn’t slow down their theme.
Try:
“Sidekick, show me lightweight product review apps that don’t affect my site speed and integrate with Judge.me.”
And boom, you’ll get tailored results. Not just popular apps, but best-fit ones for your theme, stack, and budget.
Store Owner Perspective: Making Smart Business Moves
From a business standpoint, this feature is a time-and-cost saver.
Imagine:
- You don’t need to hire a consultant to shortlist apps
- You get real-time app guidance without reading 30 blog posts
- You reduce refunds, app conflicts, and customer service issues by using better tools
And if you’re an agency or freelancer managing client stores, this is a force multiplier you can build faster, recommend smarter, and scale store stacks confidently.
What’s Coming Next: More Sidekick + AI Agent Features
According to Shopify’s roadmap, future Sidekick updates will likely include:
- Personalized workflows (e.g., “set up abandoned cart flow + app”)
- Native app setting tweaks via Sidekick chat
- Third-party tool integrations (think Klaviyo, Meta, Google Ads)
- Business benchmarking based on app data (e.g., “top 10% of stores use X + Y apps”)
The app recommendation feature is just the start of Sidekick becoming your AI-powered co-pilot for Shopify success.
Your Store, Optimized With Intelligence
Shopify’s new Sidekick app recommendation engine changes how we build, scale, and optimize stores. For merchants, it means less noise, more clarity. For developers and agencies, it means better builds, faster results.
At Craftshift, we see this as a new era of intelligent store management where the right apps + the right setup = growth.
If you’re installing apps Sidekick recommends, don’t forget to:
- Run a post-install audit
- Compress and tag every new image
- Make sure your speed and SEO stay solid
Let Sidekick help you discover the tools.
Let Craftshift help you use them the smart way.
Need help after installing apps?
Visit www.craftshift.com and get your store audited today.
