Pinterest CEO Bill Ready told investors about the company's second quarter revenue call that social apps and inspirational bookmarking sites could be considered “AI-enabled shopping assistants.” However, he believes that the Agent Web, where AI agents shop on behalf of users, is still far away in the future.
The remarks were made in response to questions about Agent Web. This can affect businesses like Search Funnel and Pinterest.
Investors may be concerned that if AI begins to understand users' interests, instead of using platforms like Pinterest, they can preemptively instruct users to shop from their own personalized recommendations.
“I think this concept of this agent buying everything for you without doing anything and buying everything for you, no matter what you do,” said the preparation in the revenue call for Q2. “I think it will be a very long cycle, both in terms of how users think about it and where they are ready to let something go and do everything for them.
Still, he pushes Pinterest to be considered an AI-enabled shopping assistant, and says the company isn't talking about it that way.
“But when users say, 'Pinterest gets me,' it's because they can open the app and actively recommend that the app matches what they're really interested in, their tastes and style, their truly great personal shopping assistant,” he said.
The company explored every way companies could create new, AI-driven experiences as “Cambrian moments,” and mentioned this moment as they were exposed to the various ways AI had already made it work. This includes AI-powered recommendations and personalization systems, the use of proprietary AI models (including multimodal AI combined with text and images), visual search experiences, conversational search, and AI-powered advertising efficiency.
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It has not addressed the growing concern among users that much of Pinterest is filled with low-quality content generated by AI. Things got so bad that earlier this year Pinterest had to launch a new set of tools to combat this invasion, like the generated images and labels for controls. The discussion also omitted the mention of the ban on mass users. Users believe this is due to their reliance on undesigned AI moderation systems. (Pinterest doesn't say if that's the case, it just supports the internal error. However, it has similar issues across social media, including Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr.)
On the phone, Ready also talks about how Pinterest aims to compete in the war with AI talent, and those who want to work there care about the AI that is being used “responsibly” and used.
“On the mission side, I think we're really, really above the weight,” the executive explained. “We create a more positive alternative to what's going on on other social media in both ways, what we're doing by adjusting AI for positivity,” he said.
Pinterest stocks fell after earnings. The company reported a sales beat, with revenues of $998 million, but earnings per share of 33 cents (adjusted) fell short of the expected 35 cent analyst. The company also said over half of the month users are Gen Z, while male users are up 95% year-on-year.