Pinterest is adding a new way to nudge users towards potentially relevant products in the app, with AI-powered recommendations now being added into your Pinterest board display, highlighting items that you might like, based on your usage and saved Pin history.
As you can see in these examples, Pinterest’s new AI-recommended board additions will give you customized prompts for items that are similar to products that you’ve already saved or shown interest in.
The recommendations will come in two new forms:
- That “Make it yours” element will display fashion and some home decor product recommendations, based on your existing saved Pins, giving you more item options to consider
- The “More ideas” breakout will provide recommended related Pins for all other board categories, including beauty, recipes and art.
- Your existing saved Pins will be kept in the “All saves” tab, so you can refer to the products and Pins that you’ve tagged as you scroll through the app.
So now, every time you save a Pin, that’ll be adding to your AI-powered recommendations algorithm, which will then help Pinterest show you more relevant products and ideas, based on your interests.
Of course, the relevance and value of such will be dependent on just how well the AI system matches up your interests. Which is not always easy, with visual matches not always aligning with product preferences, while the influx of generative AI Pins could also muddy the waters in this respect.
But it could be a valuable discovery element, which might take some of the work out of you having to scroll through the app to find relevant, interesting products.
And in the U.S. and Canada, Pinterest is also experimenting with “Styled for you” AI-powered collages, created from fashion Pins that users have saved to their boards.
As you can see in this example, with this new option, users will be able to swap out different items within a custom “Styled for you” collage to see how different products match up and fit.
Finally, Pinterest is also testing “Boards made for you,” which are personalized trend displays “curated using a combination of editorial expertise and AI-powered recommendations.”
As per Pinterest:
“These boards will be delivered directly to users’ home feeds and inboxes, providing engaging and shoppable content, including trending styles and weekly outfit inspiration. This feature will start rolling out in the next few months in the US and Canada.”
So a range of new AI recommendation tools, which could help to customize and personalize the Pinterest experience. And with 578 million monthly users, who primarily come to the app with high purchase intent, these new recommendations could help to drive more shopping activity, and make Pinterest a more engaging discovery tool.
The question then is: “How can brands ensure that their products are highlighted in these AI recommendations?”
I guess, the main focus would be to ensure that you’ve listed all of your inventory in the app, by connecting your product catalog to your Pin feed.
That would then ensure that users are shown relevant items based on their interests, while you can also stay in touch with Pinterest trends to help you link into the latest styling shifts.
Pinterest says that all users will start seeing these new features over the next few months.
