Authorizing AI tool access to your store

You control the level of data access for each authorized user or staff member in your Shopify admin. An AI tool can only access data, or make changes to your store, within the data access level that you've granted to the user.

You control the level of access that the tool has in two ways:

• Data access: You decide what access the AI tool has. When you install the integration or upgrade its access, you're asked to approve access. Some access is read-only, which lets the tool view data but not change it. Other access includes write access, which lets the tool edit data and take actions on your behalf. If you don't want to give the tool the requested level of access, then you can decline the request.
• User permissions: Users who interact with the AI tool are limited by their user permissions. For example, a user who can read product data but can't edit product data can't give the tool the ability to edit product data.

After you authorize sharing your data with the third party, the data that you selected is passed to the AI tool. At that point, your data leaves the Shopify environment and is governed by that provider's terms and privacy policy.

Review each permission before you confirm it. To decrease the data access scope after you approve it, you have to uninstall the integration.

Connecting an AI tool takes two steps, and each one requires its own confirmation.

Steps:

1. Install the Shopify plugin for ChatGPT, the Shopify connector for Claude, or the Shopify connector for Perplexity from that tool, or set up the Shopify CLI connector. The third-party tool connects to Shopify and you're redirected to the Shopify admin to authenticate.
2. On the install page, review and approve the data access level that the tool requests. This step delegates access to your store, so make sure that you're comfortable with the level of access before you accept it. If the tool requests a higher data access level for a later request, then you're asked to authorize the increase.

After the tool has access, it reads and edits data in your store when you ask it questions, limited by the access that you've granted and by your user permissions.

When you use the Shopify integration for ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity, you can connect one store at a time, even if your stores are in the same organization.

To switch stores, ask the AI tool to connect to a different Shopify store. The tool disconnects the current store, and then starts a new authorization for you to choose the next store.

After you switch stores, start a new conversation in the AI tool. A conversation that started before you switched stores can continue to use the earlier connection, so it can keep asking you to authorize the store that you left.

You can revoke an AI tool's access to your store at any time by uninstalling the integration from your Shopify admin. After you uninstall it, the tool can no longer read or edit your store data.

Uninstalling is also how you reduce a tool's access. You can't lower a data access level that you already approved, so to give a tool less access, uninstall the integration, and then install it again.