Pinterest to cut up to 15% of its workforce as focus on AI intensifies
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Pinterest said Tuesday it’s planning to slash up to 15% of its workforce.
The San Francisco-based image-sharing platform used for inspiration for home decor, fashion and other interests is laying off workers as part of a restructuring plan.
It will partly use the savings to fund “AI-focused roles and teams that drive AI adoption and execution,” Pinterest said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
As of April, Pinterest had 4,500 employees worldwide in the U.S. and other countries such as Germany, Japan and Brazil. The company didn’t immediately respond to questions about how many of those cuts would be in California.
Pinterest is the latest tech company cutting jobs while also focusing on investing more in artificial intelligence. Tech companies are competing head-to-head in a race to advance AI, prompting businesses to rethink how they spend their money.
The tech industry, once seen as a relatively stable place to grow a career, continues to be hit by job cuts in 2025. Tech companies including Meta, Block, Autodesk and others are among businesses that have slashed their workforce.
Last week, software company Autodesk said it was slashing 7% of its workforce or roughly 1,000 jobs. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is also laying off more than 1,000 employees and shuttering content studios. The social media giant, which sells AI-powered smart glasses, laid off workers who focused on the metaverse, digital spaces where people socialize, work, learn, and pursue other online activities.
Pinterest allows people to shop or search for images and videos to help plan a wedding, vacation or birthday dinner on its platform. Users save images within digital boards so they can organize their ideas in one place. Pinterest makes money through advertising and competes with larger tech giants, including Instagram and Google.
Like other companies, Pinterest has also been focusing on AI, which is changing how people search for content and shop along with advertising. Last year, the company rolled out an AI-powered assistant that provides personalized recommendations for clothing and other products its users are interested in buying.
“Over the past few years, we’ve transformed Pinterest from a platform of window shopping, where users often found that all the stores were closed into an AI-powered visual-first shopping assistant,” Pinterest Chief Executive Bill Ready said in November after the company released its third-quarter results.
Tech companies such as OpenAI and Google as well as payment services are doubling down on their efforts to get people to use AI-powered tools to shop, but the experiments are still early.
But the company also struggled to hit Wall Street’s expectations that month. Pinterest’s stock plummeted more than 20% after it reported disappointing earnings. Over the last 12 months, Pinterest shares have lost close to 30% of their value.
As retailers face higher costs from tariffs, they also face reduced advertising spending on platforms such as Pinterest. Ready said on Pinterest’s November call that retailers were facing “tariff-related margin pressure.”
“We think that’s disproportionately impacting large retailers, but that is a segment that we have more exposure to than other platforms given our focus on shopping,” he said.
Pinterest’s third-quarter sales reached $1.05 billion, up 17% from the same period in 2024. Its net income was $92 million, up 201% from $30 million. The company has roughly 600 million monthly users worldwide.
