Harley Finkelstein, Shopify: “we now have a number of distilled models where we take a tea…”

we now have a number of distilled models where we take a teacher model, usually a big frontier model, then teach a specific use case to a smaller model

Harley FinkelsteinPresident · Executive, Shopify

Earnings call: earnings call transcript via Platform Aeronaut (third-party transcript site), earnings call transcript via Platform Aeronaut (third-party transcript site), August 5, 2026.

Checked against the source [ Grade A ] Said in the last year Shopify: $11.6 billion revenue, FY2025

Filed under

What does AI do across the whole company?

Who is speaking

Harley Finkelstein, President. Presents the business on every earnings call, where statements fall under securities disclosure rules. An executive with an interest in presenting Shopify favorably.

How this was checked

Checked against the source by a first reader, then confirmed independently by a second reader who fetched the source without seeing the first reader's notes (Independent review agent (Claude Sonnet), blind second pass from passage text and citation only, no repository access, 2026-10-31).

The text matches exactly as a lowercase fragment of a longer sentence. The nearest speaker label before it is 'Harley Finkelstein — President'.

How to cite this passage

Harley Finkelstein (Shopify), “earnings call transcript via Platform Aeronaut (third-party transcript site)”, earnings call transcript via Platform Aeronaut (third-party transcript site), 2026-08-05. https://transcripts.platformaeronaut.com/transcripts/SHOP-2Q26-transcript Archived at https://the-ai-record.com/passages/shopify-now-number-distilled-models-where-take-teacher-2026

More from the same source

On R&D, the majority of our internal AI spend is allocated here, so you've seen a modest uptick in year-over-year growth.

Jeff HoffmeisterChief Financial Officer · Executive, Shopify

Earnings call: earnings call transcript via Platform Aeronaut (third-party transcript site), earnings call transcript via Platform Aeronaut (third-party transcript site), August 5, 2026.

Checked against the source [ Grade A ] Said in the last year Shopify: $11.6 billion revenue, FY2025 Passage page

We were able to hold gross margins at a relatively consistent level quarter over quarter while Sidekiq usage scaled, which reflects some cost efficiencies in support

Jeff HoffmeisterChief Financial Officer · Executive, Shopify

Earnings call: earnings call transcript via Platform Aeronaut (third-party transcript site), earnings call transcript via Platform Aeronaut (third-party transcript site), August 5, 2026.

Checked against the source [ Grade A ] Said in the last year Shopify: $11.6 billion revenue, FY2025 Passage page

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