Latest news with #BillReady
United News of India
2 days ago
- Business
- United News of India
Pinterest CEO Bill Calls AI Shopping a ‘Cambrian Moment'
Business Economy New Delhi, Aug 9 (UNI) Bill Ready, Pinterest CEO pointed towards the prospects of Agentic AI in shopping. Ready was talking with the investors on the second-quarter earnings call. Bill Ready said on the second quarter earnings call ' I think this notion of an agent just going and buying all the things for you without you doing anything is a very, very long cycle for that to play out both in terms of how users think about it, where the users are going to be ready to just let something go run off and do everything for them, save for maybe some very utilitarian journeys.' Pinterest termed the current scenario as 'Cambrian Moment' as businesses are continuously exploring new ways to create new AI-enabled experiences. While CEO Ready stressed to users to imagine 'Pinterest' as an AI-driven shopping assistant, as the platform is currently at the forefront of visual search and provides next-gen shopping experiences to users. ' If we look at what's happening on our platform already, we're able to take the user much further down that shopping journey, assisting them, as I mentioned, with the relevancy of our recommendations, that's effectively taking the user much further,' Ready added. UNI SAS GNK
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Pinterest has ‘effectively become an AI-enabled shopping assistant,' CEO says
This story was originally published on CX Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily CX Dive newsletter. Dive Brief: Pinterest is focusing on visual search and product discovery to establish itself as a leader of AI-driven experiences in a 'Cambrian moment,' CEO Bill Ready said during a Q2 2025 earnings call Thursday. The social media platform launched a proprietary generative retrieval model on search and related services to further improve personalization. The model is trained on past user activity and is designed to generate an initial set of potential pins for users with relevant and fresh content. 'Our investments in driving deeper relevance and personalization for our users has led to cumulative gains across the business,' Ready said during the call. Benefits include a 230-basis-point lift in Pinterest's year-to-date search fulfillment rate, meaning users are more likely to find what they're looking for. Dive Insight: Pinterest has 'effectively become an AI-enabled shopping assistant,' even if that isn't the way users think of the platform, Ready said. 'Pinterest has been at the forefront of visual search and has helped create an entirely new way in which users discover, explore their taste and ultimately shop,' Ready said. 'As we have significantly improved the relevance and personalization of our content using AI, we've become a destination for our users to explore their expansive set of commercial journeys.' The Pinterest app offers proactive recommendations that align with users' style tastes and preferences the same way a human shopping assistant would, according to Ready. Even if the idea of consumers using agentic AI to make purchases has yet to arrive on the platform, many are already open to AI-curated suggestions. 'If we look at what's happening on our platform already, we're able to take the user much further down that shopping journey, assisting them, as I mentioned, with the relevancy of our recommendations that's effectively taking the user much further down the shopping journey without them having to do the work,' Ready said. Some retailers are already offering AI-powered assistants. EBay rolled out a conversational AI shopping agent that offers advice based on customer preferences in May, while Amazon started testing Buy for Me, which can purchase items from third-party sites without customers leaving the Amazon Shopping app, in April. Pinterest's investments in AI and personalized curation are paying off. Revenue grew 17% year over year to $998 million in the second quarter of 2025, while global active monthly users were up 11% to 578 million, according to a company earnings release. 'It's abundantly clear that Pinterest is an AI winner,' Ready said. 'We've never been more popular or valued by our users and more performant for our advertisers.' The company's emphasis on AI-powered visual search is resonating with Gen Z, who account for more than 50% of monthly active users, according to Ready. However, the investments aren't limited to younger demographics — the company is growing across all generations and genders. 'They are coming for new types of purely visual search experiences, particularly in moments where a user may not have the words to precisely describe what they're looking for or will know it when they see it,' Ready said. Recommended Reading Call centers must maintain security, trust as they implement AI, experts say Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Pinterest CEO says agentic shopping is still a long way out
Pinterest CEO Bill Ready told investors on the company's second-quarter earnings call that the social app and inspirational bookmarking site could be considered an 'AI-enabled shopping assistant.' However, he thinks that the agentic web, where AI agents shop on users' behalf, is still far in the future. The remarks were made in response to a question about the agentic web, which could impact the search funnel and businesses like Pinterest, which positions itself at the early stages of the shopping journey — around the time when users are seeking ideas that could later turn into purchases. Investors are likely concerned that if AI began to understand users' interests, they could preemptively direct users to shop from their own personalized recommendations instead of using platforms like Pinterest. 'I think this notion of an agent just going and buying all the things for you without you doing anything—,' Ready said on the Q2 earnings call. 'I think that's going to be a very, very long cycle for that to play out, both in terms of how the users think about it, where the users are going to be ready to just let something go run off and do everything for them, save for maybe some very utilitarian journeys,' he noted. Still, he pushed for Pinterest to be thought of as an AI-enabled shopping assistant, saying that the company doesn't talk about it that way, usually, because it's not how users think of it. 'But when users say things like 'Pinterest just gets me,' it's because they can open the app and the app is going to make recommendations to them proactively on things that they're really interested in, that align with their taste and their style, the way that a really great personal shopping assistant would,' he said. The company referred to this moment in time, when businesses are exploring all the ways to create new, AI-driven experiences, as a 'Cambrian moment,' and touched on the various ways it had put AI to work already. This included AI-powered recommendation and personalization systems, the use of proprietary AI models (including multimodal AI that combines text and images), visual search experiences, conversational search, and AI-powered advertising efficiencies. Not addressed were the growing user concerns that too much of Pinterest is now filled with AI-generated, low-quality content. The situation became so bad that Pinterest earlier this year had to launch a new set of tools to fight this invasion, like labels for AI-generated images and controls for users to filter out Gen AI Pins. The discussion also omitted mention of mass user bans, which users believe stem from an overreliance on poorly designed AI moderation systems. (Pinterest wouldn't say if that's the case, only chalking them up to an internal error. However, similar problems are cropping up across social media, including on Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr.) On the call, Ready also spoke about how Pinterest aims to compete in the war for AI talent, saying that people who want to work there care about AI that's used for good and used 'responsibly.' 'On the mission side, I think we really, really punch above our weight,' the exec explained. 'Both in terms of what we're doing with tuning AI for positivity, creating a more positive alternative to what's happening in the rest of social media,' he said. Pinterest stock dropped after earnings, as the company reported a beat on sales, with revenue of $998 million, but earnings per share at 33 cents (adjusted), fell short of the 35 cents analysts expected. The company also noted that over half its monthly users were Gen Z, and male users were up 95% year-over-year. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
TechCrunch
3 days ago
- Business
- TechCrunch
Pinterest CEO says agentic shopping is still a long way out
Pinterest CEO Bill Ready told investors on the company's second-quarter earnings call that the social app and inspirational bookmarking site could be considered an 'AI-enabled shopping assistant.' However, he thinks that the agentic web, where AI agents shop on users' behalf, is still far in the future. The remarks were made in response to a question about the agentic web, which could impact the search funnel and businesses like Pinterest, which positions itself at the early stages of the shopping journey — around the time when users are seeking ideas that could later turn into purchases. Investors are likely concerned that if AI began to understand users' interests, they could preemptively direct users to shop from their own personalized recommendations instead of using platforms like Pinterest. 'I think this notion of an agent just going and buying all the things for you without you doing anything—,' Ready said on the Q2 earnings call. 'I think that's going to be a very, very long cycle for that to play out, both in terms of how the users think about it, where the users are going to be ready to just let something go run off and do everything for them, save for maybe some very utilitarian journeys,' he noted. Still, he pushed for Pinterest to be thought of as an AI-enabled shopping assistant, saying that the company doesn't talk about it that way, usually, because it's not how users think of it. 'But when users say things like 'Pinterest just gets me,' it's because they can open the app and the app is going to make recommendations to them proactively on things that they're really interested in, that align with their taste and their style, the way that a really great personal shopping assistant would,' he said. The company referred to this moment in time, when businesses are exploring all the ways to create new, AI-driven experiences, as a 'Cambrian moment,' and touched on the various ways it had put AI to work already. This included AI-powered recommendation and personalization systems, the use of proprietary AI models (including multimodal AI that combines text and images), visual search experiences, conversational search, and AI-powered advertising efficiencies. Techcrunch event Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital, Elad Gil — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They're here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don't miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $600+ before prices rise. Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They're here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don't miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices rise. San Francisco | REGISTER NOW Not addressed were the growing user concerns that too much of Pinterest is now filled with AI-generated, low-quality content. The situation became so bad that Pinterest earlier this year had to launch a new set of tools to fight this invasion, like labels for AI-generated images and controls for users to filter out Gen AI Pins. The discussion also omitted mention of mass user bans, which users believe stem from an overreliance on poorly designed AI moderation systems. (Pinterest wouldn't say if that's the case, only chalking them up to an internal error. However, similar problems are cropping up across social media, including on Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr.) On the call, Ready also spoke about how Pinterest aims to compete in the war for AI talent, saying that people who want to work there care about AI that's used for good and used 'responsibly.' 'On the mission side, I think we really, really punch above our weight,' the exec explained. 'Both in terms of what we're doing with tuning AI for positivity, creating a more positive alternative to what's happening in the rest of social media,' he said. Pinterest stock dropped after earnings, as the company reported a beat on sales, with revenue of $998 million, but earnings per share at 33 cents (adjusted), fell short of the 35 cents analysts expected. The company also noted that over half its monthly users were Gen Z, and male users were up 95% year-over-year.
Fast Company
3 days ago
- Business
- Fast Company
Pinterest is winning over Gen Z and finding success with AI, but the stock price is down double digits today
Pinterest reported its second-quarter earnings on Thursday, August 7, and, in many ways, it was good news—though you wouldn't know it from how much its shares have dropped. Here's what to know: What did Pinterest report? The social media company's global revenue rose to $998.2 million from $853.6 million year-over-year (YOY). The 17% jump beat Wall Street's expectations of $975 million, according to consensus estimates cited by CNBC. Its net income also increased by 336% YOY, to $38.8 million from $8.9 million. Moreover, Pinterest also projected a better-than-expected third quarter, with revenue between $1.03 billion and $1.05 billion. Plus, it's doing well when it comes to actual users, particularly younger ones. Pinterest reports an 11% increase YOY, coming in at 578 million global monthly active users. According to Pinterest CEO Bill Ready, over 50% of those users are Gen Z. What has the CEO said about the earnings? 'Three years into our business transformation, I've never been more confident in Pinterest's ability to deliver for our users and advertisers,' Ready said in a statement. 'We've found our best product market fit ever by becoming a personalized shopping destination for users and an AI -powered performance platform for advertisers. With this focus, we believe we're well-positioned to further capture market share.' Ready further called Pinterest an 'AI winner' in an earnings call, stating that the technology is 'deeply integrated' throughout almost every aspect of the company. This quarter, it launched a new 'proprietary generative retrieval model' for search, built in-house. 'Due to the sophistication of this model and the breadth of content and activity [it] is trained on, it can recommend more relevant and deeply personalized content for our users while also balancing the distribution of fresh content,' Ready said. How is the stock performing after the earnings? Not well. Alongside all of Pinterest's great news was lower-than-expected earnings per share. The company reported adjusted EPS of 33 cents, rather than the 35 cents that Wall Street expected. Pinterest's stock (NYSE: PINS) was down more than 13% in premarket trading on Friday as of this writing. Julia Brau Donnelly, Pinterest's CFO, added that advertisers are also worried about tariffs and market uncertainty. 'As we talk to advertisers about Q3, we do hear that some of that tariff-related and broader market uncertainty has continued into how they're thinking about spend for Q3, though this varies by advertiser,' she said during the call. 'Again, it's definitely a relatively more constructive environment than feared.'
