Pinterest plans for more AI, fewer employees

The trade reports this morning that Pinterest plans to reduce its staff by 15 percent and will be “reallocating resources to AI-focused roles and teams that drive AI adoption and execution” and “prioritizing AI‑powered products and capabilities.” The changes are expected to go into effect by the end of September. 

Longtime users of the platform will likely not be surprised by this, even if they are disappointed. After Q3 in 2025, Pinterest boasted in a press release that it had “effectively turned our platform into an AI-powered shopping assistant for 600 million consumers.” In 2024, Pinterest launched a generative AI tool for advertisers to use. These developments were documented in a Wired article published in late 2025, which also gave voice to the myriad complaints the site’s users had. “The greed and exploitation has become steadily more obtrusive and has now reached a point where the user experience is entirely marred,” said one user of the platform. Many of the ads lead to “ghost stores,” while small business owners who have used the site for a long time claim that all the AI ads have drowned them out. THR notes that Pinterest’s stock has fallen 21 percent over the past year.