Pinterest To Lay Off 15% Of Its Workforce As It Doubles Down On AI

Pinterest to Lay Off 15% of Its Workforce As It Doubles Down on AI

Last updated: 2026/01/27 at 2:15 PM

News Room Published 27 January 2026

Inspo-focused social network Pinterest is set to lay off 15% of its workforce before the end of the year, in an effort to refocus its business on enhanced artificial intelligence tools.

A Jan. 27 regulatory filing detailed plans to reduce its workforce by “less than 15%,” with additional cost savings from reduced office expenses. Pinterest says it will complete its cuts by Sept. 30, 2026.

The plan is to reallocate resources to “AI-focused roles and teams that drive AI adoption and execution.” It also says it wants to prioritize AI-powered products and transform its “sales and go-to-market approach” through new strategies.

As of September 2025, Pinterest’s headcount was 5,205, so around 780 employees could be on the chopping block.

The brand has yet to announce which AI-powered tools will receive investment. In its Q3 earnings report last year, CEO Bill Ready championed the site’s AI-powered visual search. “[We] have effectively turned our platform into an AI-powered shopping assistant for 600 million consumers,” he said. “In turn, global advertisers are increasingly counting on Pinterest as a go-to search platform to reach their customers and drive sales.”

In October, the company launched its Pinterest Assistant AI companion in the US, offering shopping advice and recommendations. The tech pulls information from your previous interactions with Pinterest, such as boards, collages, or saves, and gives you recommendations depending on your design aesthetic. The social network uses the example of shopping for pillows, where it looks at your history to recommend options that may fit your style, as a personal shopper would.

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That said, the platform has faced complaints about AI slop that makes it difficult to find legitimate content. Last year, it rolled out labels for images suspected of being generated or modified using AI. It also gave users the option to select a “see fewer” setting for Gen AI Pins in categories prone to AI-generated or modified content, such as beauty and art.

According to recruitment specialist consulting company Challenger, Gray & Christmas, AI was a publicly cited contributing factor to 54,836 job losses in 2025.