Pinterest to cut ‘less than 15%’ of staff amid AI push

Published Wed, Jan 28, 2026 · 06:53 AM

[NEW YORK] Pinterest said that it plans to cut “less than 15 per cent” of its workforce and reduce office space as it shifts resources towards investing in artificial intelligence (AI).

The search and discovery platform anticipates related pretax charges of US$35 million to US$45 million, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Pinterest expects to complete the restructuring plan near the end of its third quarter, ending Sep 30, 2026.

It had 5,205 employees as at Sep 30, according to an earlier regulatory filing, which would suggest that the latest round of cuts affected less than 780 workers.

The San Francisco-based company intends to reallocate resources towards “AI-focused roles and teams that drive AI adoption and execution” and plans to prioritise AI-powered products, according to the filing.

Shares of Pinterest fell as much as 10 per cent in New York on Tuesday (Jan 27).

Pinterest is the latest tech company to re-orient its business to try and capitalise on the rise of AI products. Instagram parent Meta Platforms earlier this month also initiated job cuts in its Reality Labs division, moving resources from virtual reality products to AI wearables. AI has become a major focus of tech platforms, which are spending heavily to build data centres and other AI infrastructure to support new AI tools and services.

Pinterest’s move “likely suggests more aggressive investments in building its AI capabilities, which will be a drag on gross margin”, wrote Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Mandeep Singh and Robert Biggar on Tuesday.

But the company’s AI spending could help improve ad pricing, where it currently lags larger rivals such as Meta in direct-response ads, they added.

Wedbush analyst Scott Devitt said that the announced job cuts are “consistent with our thesis that Pinterest will face rising threats from consumer adoption of competing AI-enabled platforms and agentic commerce tools”.

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“While it may be too early to evaluate if these moves will offer any comfort to investors, our bias for future estimate revisions lean to the downside,” he added.

Pinterest is set to report fourth-quarter earnings results on Feb 12. BLOOMBERG