Mikhail Parakhin Is one of TIME's 2026 Executives of the Year: Tech and Data - Time Magazine

Since becoming Shopify's chief technology officer in 2024, Mikhail Parakhin has been rebuilding the commerce platform for a world in which AI is rewiring how people buy—and how merchants sell. In December, Shopify previewed SimGym, which spins up “digital twins” of real shoppers, so a tiny store can do A/B testing like an enormous retailer. A month later, the company released its Universal Commerce Protocol, which was co-developed with Google and allows an AI agent to complete a purchase, including handling complicated details like taxes and loyalty points. In less than a year, it became the industry standard.

Unlike most tech executives, Parakhin publicly reveals adoption metrics and other parts of his playbook. He says he believes in transparency and that it helps recruit the best engineers. "We're not a hedge fund," he says. "Nobody wants your secret sauce. They want to prove their secret sauce is better." 

A trained physicist turned machine-learning engineer, Parakhin spends time every weekend in his home “cave” doing hands-on AI work. “This makes me feel like I’m connected with what’s happening,” he says. “I still got it.”