Pinterest CEO: Achieving Agentic Shopping Remains a Distant Objective

In the second-quarter earnings call, Pinterest CEO Bill Ready shared with investors that the social media platform might be viewed as an “AI-enabled shopping assistant.” However, he opined that the idea of an agentic web—where AI makes purchases for users—is still a long way off.

His remarks came in response to a question about the agentic web, which could reshape the search funnel and affect businesses like Pinterest that position themselves at the early stages of the shopping journey, particularly when users seek inspiration to turn into purchases.

Investors may be worried that as AI begins to understand user preferences, it could lead them to shop through personalized recommendations rather than platforms like Pinterest.

“I think the notion of an agent buying everything for you—,” Ready mentioned during the Q2 earnings call. “I believe it will take considerable time for that to become a reality, influenced by user perceptions and their comfort level with allowing an entity to handle everything on their behalf, except in specific practical scenarios,” he added.

Despite this, he argued for recognizing Pinterest as an AI-enhanced shopping assistant, noting that the company usually does not present it in this way because it doesn’t match user perceptions.

“Yet, when users express feelings like ‘Pinterest just gets me,’ it’s due to the app’s capability to offer proactive recommendations on items that genuinely resonate with their tastes and styles, much like an excellent personal shopping assistant would,” he clarified.

The company referred to the current stage as a “Cambrian moment,” where businesses are experimenting with various AI-driven experiences, showcasing the diverse applications of AI it has already introduced, such as recommendation and personalization systems, proprietary AI models (including multimodal AI that merges text and images), visual search capabilities, conversational search, and improved advertising effectiveness through AI.

The conversation did not address rising user concerns about the surge of AI-generated, low-quality content on Pinterest. This issue has become significant enough that earlier this year, Pinterest implemented new tools aimed at mitigating it, including labels for AI-generated images and user controls to filter out Gen AI Pins. Additionally, the discussion skipped over the topic of widespread user bans, which some users attribute to an overreliance on subpar AI moderation systems. Pinterest did not confirm this and instead attributed the bans to an internal error; however, similar incidents have occurred across other social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr.

During the call, Ready also shared Pinterest’s approach to attracting AI talent, stating that candidates are drawn by the responsible and positive use of AI.

“Concerning our mission, I believe we perform exceptionally well given our size,” the executive remarked. “This is reflected in our commitment to tailoring AI for beneficial outcomes, providing a more uplifting alternative to what is common on other social media platforms,” he expressed.

After the earnings report, Pinterest’s stock saw a dip, with the company reporting $998 million in sales—surpassing expectations—while earnings per share at 33 cents (adjusted) fell short of the anticipated 35 cents. The company also stated that over half of its monthly users are from Gen Z, with male users increasing by 95% year-over-year.