The news: Ahead of Cannes Lions, Pinterest announced a series of new ad tech tools and a standalone app for conversational, AI-powered shopping experiences.

• Business Assistant: The AI assistant lives inside Ads Manager and mobile and offers visual insights into business performance, breakout Trends on Pinterest, and top Pins. It’s currently in closed beta testing in the US.
• Pinterest Performance+: This AI model helps brands select ad variants based on which are most likely to perform for each ad impression.
• Pinterest MCP: AI-native infrastructure integrates Pinterest into teams’ outside copilots and agentic tools, letting advertisers manage and monitor campaigns using third-party tools.

The “Ask Pinterest” app uses Pinterest’s Taste Graph, which maps user interests, and expands Pinterest’s visual discovery experience beyond the main app.

• Consumers can ask complex, multistep questions such as how to pack for a multicity trip or how to meal prep based on a budget and dietary restrictions.
• The company said the app will help Pinterest see how AI can support “richer shopping experiences” and will inform future AI-powered features in its main app.

The bigger picture: These new and upcoming releases show how Pinterest is using AI to strengthen both sides of its platform—helping advertisers improve campaign performance on the back end while making discovery more conversational for consumers on the front end.

This positions Pinterest to compete more directly in the AI-powered discovery and shopping landscape against social commerce platforms like TikTok Shop.

Recommendations for marketers: Test Pinterest’s AI tools to see where campaign insights can be generated more quickly and creative performance can be improved without increasing manual workload.

Prepare for conversational discovery in apps like Ask Pinterest by making sure product descriptions, creative assets, and campaign messaging align with AI search behavior. Build out diverse content libraries with high-quality images that can surface in response to a variety of queries.

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