Pinterest is expanding its use of artificial intelligence to power shopping and discovery features, while signaling a shift toward more cost-efficient open source technologies. On the company’s latest earnings call, CEO Bill Ready emphasized that open source AI models are proving capable of supporting Pinterest’s visual search and personalization tools at significantly lower cost than proprietary systems.
The platform relies heavily on AI to deliver personalized recommendations, multimodal search that blends text and images, ad relevance, and recently, product discovery through Pinterest Assistant. The conversational shopping agent offers suggestions based on a user’s saved content and browsing history.
As AI grows more central to the service, investors pressed the company on agentic commerce — AI systems capable of performing autonomous actions such as completing purchases. Ready acknowledged the fast-moving nature of AI-powered shopping, but indicated Pinterest’s focus remains on assisting rather than replacing user decision-making.
During the third-quarter earnings report, Pinterest projected holiday revenue between $1.31 billion and $1.34 billion, slightly below analyst expectations. The company pointed to weaker demand in home goods tied to presidential administration tariffs. The forecast led to a more than 21 percent drop in the share price, raising concerns about near-term growth.
Against that backdrop, Ready highlighted efficiency gains from open source AI. Pinterest continues to develop its own proprietary models but routinely benchmarks commercial systems against open alternatives. In early testing, fine-tuned open source models have delivered strong performance specifically for Pinterest’s visual use cases, while dramatically lowering per-token processing costs.
Ready said the company expects to deploy these models across several operational functions at “a fraction of the cost” of large proprietary AI providers. He added that the strategy supports both improved user experience and better cost control as AI workloads increase.
Agentic Shopping Still Developing
Pinterest is experimenting with features that bring shoppers closer to checkout, such as push-button buying enabled through its Amazon collaboration. Ready said the company is monitoring whether consumers want AI-driven purchasing automation or prefer a guided experience.
Pinterest sees its role as helping users refine taste and find the right products through visual inspiration. Pinterest Assistant is designed to expand that approach, using insights from boards, collages, and similar customer profiles to offer more relevant guidance.
The company is also rolling out personalized boards curated with a mix of experts and machine learning, reinforcing its strategy of blending human creativity with AI scale. As Pinterest continues to navigate uncertain retail conditions, leaders believe open source AI will help protect margins while supporting innovation in visual shopping.
