Pinterest lays off 15% of employees as it shifts resources to AI

Pinterest is laying off 15% of its workforce as it doubles down on artificial intelligence, joining a growing list of tech companies reshaping teams around AI-first priorities.

In a securities filing released Tuesday, Pinterest said it plans to cut its global workforce by less than 15% and scale back office space. The company expects the changes to be completed by the end of the third quarter in late September. Shares slipped roughly 3% in premarket trading following the disclosure.

“On January 26, 2026, the Company announced the board-approved global restructuring plan (the “Plan”) that includes a reduction in force that is expected to affect less than 15% of the Company’s workforce as well as office space reductions,” Pinterest said in the SEC filing.

The company framed the move as a reallocation of resources, with headcount shifting away from some roles and into teams focused on AI-powered products and capabilities. Pinterest said the restructuring will reshape parts of its sales and marketing organization as it leans more heavily into automation and machine-driven tools.

Pinterest expects to record pre-tax restructuring charges ranging from $35 million to $45 million. As of last April, the company reported more than 4,500 employees worldwide in its most recent proxy filing.

AI has been threaded deeper into Pinterest’s product roadmap over the past year. The platform has pushed personalization harder, using machine learning to surface more relevant content across search, discovery, and shopping experiences. In October, Pinterest rolled out “Pinterest Assistant,” an AI-powered shopping feature that helps users find products faster through conversational prompts.

Advertising has followed a similar path. Pinterest has expanded automated ad tools for marketers as competition intensifies across social platforms. TikTok continues to gain ground in commerce-driven discovery, Meta’s Facebook and Instagram remain dominant in ad scale, and pressure to prove efficiency keeps rising across the sector.

“Our investments in AI and product innovation are paying off,” Pinterest CEO Bill Ready said in November. “We’ve become a leader in visual search and have effectively turned our platform into an AI-powered shopping assistant for 600 million customers.”

Pinterest’s cuts fit into a broader industry trend. According to consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, AI was cited in nearly 55,000 U.S. layoffs last year, with companies pointing to automation, efficiency gains, and restructuring tied to new technologies, CNBC reported.

That explanation has drawn skepticism from some observers. Critics argue that AI is sometimes used as a convenient label for cost-cutting moves driven by slower growth, margin pressure, or shifting priorities. The debate over how much AI truly replaces human roles, versus how often it reframes existing business decisions, continues to follow each new round of tech layoffs.

For Pinterest, the message is clear: future growth hinges on machine-driven discovery, shopping, and ads. The human cost of that shift is now becoming visible.