Artificial intelligence is no longer a promise for Pinterest—it has become the cornerstone of the company’s strategy to reshape how brands connect with consumers.
At Cannes Lions 2026, the platform unveiled a new suite of AI-powered tools focused on advertising, creativity, and product discovery, while reaffirming that Mexico and Latin America will be priority markets for its expansion.
With more than 630 million monthly active users and over 80 billion searches every month, Pinterest aims to differentiate itself from other platforms by capitalizing on users’ purchase intent at the inspiration stage, rather than after they have already made a buying decision.
In an interview with Merca2.0, Lee Brown, Chief Business Officer at Pinterest, and Marcos Westphalen, VP of Pinterest for Latin America, explained that the company’s strategy combines artificial intelligence, visual search, and a brand-safe environment to help advertisers achieve stronger business results without compromising the user experience.
Pinterest Leverages AI to Improve Advertising Performance
This week, Pinterest introduced Business Assistant, Pinterest MCP, an infrastructure designed to simplify integration with advertising agencies, and Ask Pinterest, an AI-powered conversational shopping experience.
According to Lee Brown, the future of discovery will be multimodal, moving beyond the traditional reliance on keywords. Today, more than half of Pinterest’s 80 billion monthly searches carry commercial intent, while 96% of searches are unbranded, giving advertisers an opportunity to influence consumers before brand preference is established.
“People come to Pinterest looking for inspiration. They’re not searching for a specific product—they’re searching for ideas. That’s where brands have the opportunity to become part of the discovery journey,” Brown said.
The company also introduced Creative Plus, a new solution that automatically optimizes the highest-performing creative assets for each audience. According to Pinterest, the technology is already delivering approximately 7.5% higher campaign performance.
Mexico and Latin America Become Strategic Growth Markets
Although Pinterest has established a strong global presence, Latin America has emerged as one of its most strategic regions for attracting new advertisers.
Marcos Westphalen said Brazil and Mexico are the company’s largest markets in the region, followed by Argentina, Chile, and Colombia. However, the company’s next challenge is no longer growing its user base but encouraging more businesses to include Pinterest in their marketing strategies.
The Latin America executive explained that Pinterest is expanding beyond traditional categories such as retail and consumer packaged goods to attract industries including travel, financial services, and brands connected to major life moments.
He also confirmed that Pinterest’s latest AI-powered products will be rolled out globally, although implementation priorities will vary by market.
A Positive Environment Also Delivers Better Results for Brands
Beyond technological innovation, Pinterest continues to position itself as a platform that offers a positive environment for both users and advertisers.
Brown noted that more than half of Pinterest’s audience belongs to Generation Z and that the platform has achieved 11 consecutive quarters of user growth. He attributed part of that momentum to decisions centered on digital safety, including making accounts private by default for users under 16 and introducing initiatives focused on community well-being.
That strategy also provides a commercial advantage. Brown revealed that research conducted with Magna found that purchase intent increases by up to 95% when advertising appears in positive and brand-safe environments.
Through this approach, Pinterest is accelerating the integration of artificial intelligence across its advertising ecosystem while strengthening its presence in high-growth markets such as Latin America, where the company sees significant opportunities to expand advertiser adoption.
