May 21 (Reuters) - Shopify ( SHOP ) on

Wednesday rolled out a generative artificial intelligence

feature that would allow merchants on its e-commerce platform to

set up their online stores by entering descriptive keywords.

The "AI Store Builder" generates three store layouts,

complete with images and text, based on the keywords, helping

sellers significantly reduce the time and resources required to

design their store website.

While Shopify ( SHOP ) has offered various AI-based tools and

third-party applications to assist merchants in building their

stores, the AI Store Builder is the first integrated feature

that fully automates the website setup process.

"Instead of just having a merchant click and drag and fill

out text fields on how they want their site to look - which can

be really daunting for some - we thought why not ask them more

open-ended questions and set up their store in the best likeness

we can imagine, using AI," said Vanessa Lee, vice president of

product at Shopify ( SHOP ).

Shopify ( SHOP ) has bet heavily on AI products to draw more

merchants to its platform, offering tools that range from image

generation to inventory management.