Pinterest’s ‘AI Everywhere’ Strategy Drives User, Search Growth

In the Q3 earnings call Tuesday (Nov. 4), Pinterest execs told investors the company has transformed from a digital mood board into what CEO Bill Ready called an “AI-powered visual-first shopping assistant.” The company said artificial intelligence (AI) now underpins nearly every part of its platform, from search and discovery to shopping recommendations and the new conversational Pinterest Assistant.

Ready said Pinterest’s mission is to “anticipate what users will love next,” describing how the company’s AI systems are designed to predict inspiration before users even search. “Unlike chat or search platforms that wait for users to type a prompt, our AI curates inspiration that’s ready the moment they return.”

Third-quarter revenue rose 17% to $1.049 billion, slightly ahead of Wall Street expectations, according to the company’s earnings report for the period ending Sept. 30. Monthly active users climbed 12% to 600 million. Ready said all users logged in are generating “billions of first-party intent signals” that train its recommendation systems.

AI Integration Accelerates

The company processed 80 billion monthly queries in the third quarter, up 44% from a year earlier. Visual search drives most of that growth, and users are conducting more searches per session, signaling deeper engagement and stronger commercial intent.

Pinterest launched its first multimodal search tool in May, starting with women’s fashion. The feature combines text and image inputs for more precise results and will expand to more categories in 2025. The company is also testing a voice-based Pinterest Assistant that converts open-ended prompts like “what outfits match this theme” or “make these home ideas brighter” into curated visual results.

Ready said this combination of first-party data and personalization gives Pinterest “a distinct right to win” in visual discovery. “As we provide more value to our users by surfacing what they’re looking for, they engage more deeply,” he said.

Pinterest credited AI with lifting engagement per user faster than total user growth. Yet the scope of its features, spanning shopping, conversational search, recommendation, and advertising, raises questions about cost and focus. “We see a clear path to sustainable growth,” Ready said, “but AI is the heart of that experience, and it comes with higher infrastructure investments.”

Pinterest’s embrace of AI is part of a growing trend that sees retailers increasing investments in the technology. PYMNTS Intelligence data shows that 73% of retailers plan to increase their investments in gen AI over the next year to be able to analyze transactions and payments data.

What Else Stood Out on the Call

Visual search scale: Queries climbed 44% year over year to 80 billion monthly searches, reinforcing Pinterest’s role as a visual discovery engine.

Agentic commerce: Ready said the platform now guides users through “decision-making journeys.” Purchases still occur off-site, but users with Amazon-linked accounts can move directly from a shoppable pin to Amazon’s checkout page in near one-click fashion.

Holiday engagement push: The Holiday Edit campaign anchors Pinterest’s fourth-quarter strategy. Hundreds of AI-assisted gift boards pair algorithmic suggestions with human editors across 17 categories such as fashion, home, beauty, travel and technology.

Ad performance: Outbound clicks to advertisers rose 40% in Q3, showing tighter alignment between product discovery and commerce. Advertising remains Pinterest’s primary source of revenue.

Topline Results

Total operating costs rose as the company invested in AI models and infrastructure. Net income was $6 million, compared with a $65 million loss a year earlier.

Global average revenue per user was $1.78, with the United States and Canada reaching $7.64. International users represented 83% of Pinterest’s total audience but accounted for just 25% of revenue, underscoring the company’s ongoing monetization gap outside North America.

Pinterest expects fourth-quarter revenue between $1.313 billion and $1.338 billion, implying growth of 14% to 16% year over year. The company reaffirmed its goal of mid-to-high teens revenue growth while cautioning that infrastructure spending will continue to rise as AI usage expands.