Pinterest launched an experimental artificial intelligence-powered app called Ask Pinterest (Retail Dive - Technology). The limited-access app processes natural-language queries from users making multi-step decisions that don't fit neatly into a single search, such as planning a dinner party on a budget. The app retains context across sessions and will inform future AI-powered experiences across Pinterest's main platform (Retail Dive - Technology).
This move aligns with Pinterest CEO Bill Ready's vision of the platform as an AI-enabled shopping assistant and a destination for users to explore their commercial journeys (Retail Dive - Technology). The app comes shortly after Pinterest invested a record $4 billion to deepen its relationship with Amazon Web Services and improve visual search features (Retail Dive - Technology). For commerce practitioners, Ask Pinterest represents a testing ground for conversational, visual-first, and agentic shopping experiences that could reshape how consumers discover and purchase products.
Major retailers including Etsy, Target, and Walmart are already placing significant bets on agentic AI by partnering with Google's Gemini, Microsoft's Copilot, and OpenAI's ChatGPT to add their products to external platforms (Retail Dive - Technology). However, consumer concerns persist: 73% of respondents expressed concern about how AI would use their personal shopping data (Retail Dive - Technology), suggesting that privacy and data transparency will be critical differentiators in the agentic AI shopping race.