Descriptions:
In a Bloomberg Technology interview, Pinterest CEO Bill Ready outlines how the company’s investment in custom, compact AI models has driven 11 consecutive quarters of record user growth and 10 straight quarters of double-digit engagement expansion. With over 630 million users generating 80 billion monthly searches — more than half of which carry commercial intent — Pinterest has repositioned itself as an AI-powered shopping assistant particularly resonant with Gen Z, which now accounts for more than half of the platform’s user base.
Ready explains that Pinterest deliberately avoids dependence on large general-purpose models, instead training smaller fit-for-purpose models on Pinterest’s proprietary curation and taste signals. This approach delivers 30% better shopping recommendation relevancy than leading off-the-shelf proprietary models at less than 10% of the cost — a striking data point in the broader industry debate between specialized and general AI systems. He emphasizes that the platform’s competitive advantage lies not in the models alone but in the unique human taste and style signals generated by hundreds of millions of users curating boards and discovering products.
The interview also covers Pinterest’s Q1 2026 acquisition of TV Scientific, a connected TV advertising platform, and how layering Pinterest’s audience data on top of TV Scientific’s capabilities has produced a 65% improvement in purchase conversions from connected TV ads. Ready frames this as part of a broader strategy to help advertisers reach Pinterest’s high-commercial-intent users across surfaces beyond the Pinterest app, as connected TV ad spend continues its projected trajectory toward surpassing linear television by 2028.
📺 Source: Bloomberg Technology · Published May 05, 2026
🏷️ Format: Interview
