Pinterest Launches AI Visual Search Ad Platform

Pinterest is introducing a new performance advertising solution. 

At Pinterest Presents – the company’s annual global advertiser summit – the company announced the launch of Visual Search ads, which are designed to help brands reach consumers through visual search and high-intent discovery moments on the platform.

This solution has been created to place advertisers prominently within Pinterest search results and Pin close-ups, to better connect brands with users as they visually search, compare options and move further along the buyer journey. 

“Traditional search advertising has long relied on keywords, but in an AI-driven world, people are expressing themselves in much richer ways,” says Bill Ready, CEO of Pinterest. 

“Visual Search Ads allow marketers to tap into this new and rapidly growing form of AI-powered search with a prominent placement at the critical decision points where people see, save and decide. 

“Powered by Pinterest Intelligence – our AI-enabled visual understanding of images, products, taste and intent – we make those signals actionable for advertisers through visual search.”

Targeting a visually driven audience

According to internal data from Pinterest shared in the company’s Q2 2026 earnings, Pinterest users conduct more than 80 billion searches every single month. The majority of those searches are visual, and more than half are commercial.

The Visual Search Ads offering is designed to more effectively target that visually driven audience, with advertisers able to bid for a top response and drive users directly to their websites – which Pinterest says creates a new performance opportunity at a key point in the buyer journey.

Pinterest has said that this offering will be available to all eligible Pinterest advertisers “in the coming weeks” and is compatible with Pinterest Performance+, its AI-powered performance advertising suite. 

Alongside the launch of this new ad offering, Pinterest announced a series of new capabilities at Pinterest Presents. 

These include Pinterest Performance+ Priority Products, which give advertisers more control over which products they want to emphasise during key moments, and self-serve A/B testing to make it easier for advertisers to test strategies. 

Changes under Claudine Cheever

These new offerings come as Pinterest moves towards prioritising shopping and commercialisation on the platform – a shift it has been undergoing since the appointment of Claudine Cheever as Chief Marketing Officer of Pinterest in January 2026. 

Claudine – who was previously the Vice President of Global Brand and Marketing at Amazon – was chosen to lead the company’s strategic shift towards commercialisation as Pinterest looks to capitalise on the growing advertiser interest in the platform. 

“What really hooked me is how Pinterest stands apart from other social and search platforms,” Claudine said upon her appointment. “The platform is rooted in intention, not reaction. People come to Pinterest to save, curate, evolve their interests and shop. That’s not just inspiring. It’s fundamentally different.

“The signals Pinterest receives are grounded in curiosity and intent. They open up a more thoughtful and meaningful way to connect brands with people. 

“Pinterest is able to reach people at the exact moment when inspiration turns into action. It’s marketing that is additive and helpful to people. For marketers, this is especially powerful.”

Who are Pinterest’s key partners?

• Amazon Web Services (AWS):  Pinterest is working with AWS to power the next generation of AI-driven discovery. Pinterest announced a planned US$4bn commitment through 2031, fthe largest infrastructure deal in the company’s history. This renewed agreement supports Pinterest’s next phase of growth across AI model training, inference and platform infrastructure.
• Shopify: Pinterest users can integrate Shopify to sync their product catalogue, publish pins, run ads and track performance automatically. Small businesses and global brands alike can easily turn their items into shoppable Product Pins. This technical alliance simplifies social commerce by streamlining tag deployment, automated inventory management and merchant onboarding, effectively bridging online retail storefronts with inspiration-seeking consumers globally.
• Google: Pinterest announced an ad partnership in February 2024 to serve ads on Pinterest through Google's Ad Manager and boost monetisation, especially in international markets.
• Salesforce: The Pinterest and Salesforce partnership allows businesses to connect visual inspiration data from Pinterest directly into Salesforce tools like Salesforce - Pinterest Business and Salesforce Commerce Cloud.