Pinterest’s Use of AI in Digital Analytics: Predicting The Future (of Popular Trends)

Navya Thakkar | Blog Post | February 11, 2025

A user's Pinterest home page

With the revolutionary impact of AI in business, companies are working hard to integrate it into their processes for digital analytics. AI is now used to automate data processing, detect patterns to personalize recommendations, and accelerate predictive analytics. As AI continues to evolve, its role in digital analytics is becoming essential to a company’s success. This case study outlines and analyzes the role of AI in Pinterest’s digital analytics strategy to understand its impact on user experience and business performance.

Pinterest’s Use of AI in Digital Analytics

Pinterest is a social media platform that allows users to find, share, organize, and save ideas through visual media. As a highly interactive interface, Pinterest has a huge scope for the application of digital analytics in improving user experience and understanding business needs. AI is seamlessly integrated into many aspects of Pinterest’s digital analytics:

AI Visual Search for Platform Personalization: Digital analysis via visual AI search tools help Pinterest identify and create personalized experiences for users by analyzing user behavior and preferences, and recommending relevant content.
Digital Analytics for Business Accounts: Pinterest’s main revenue is derived from advertisements on the platform. Often, about 1/3 of the visuals seen on a Pinterest page are sponsored ads from Pinterests' business partners (see images below). Digital analytics powered by AI are applied to Pinterest’s business accounts to understand and improve ad performance and streamline campaign creation for maximum return on investment.
Trend Analysis: Pinterest also uses AI to analyze user searches and interactions to identify emerging trends using predictive analytics. These insights are valuable to marketers, content creators, and the company to understand user behavior.

While there are many different applications of AI in Pinterest’s digital analytics, this blog post focuses on Pinterest’s Trend Analysis, how it is done, and its implications for the future.

A Pinterest homepage with ads removed (left) vs a Pinterest homepage with ads (right)

Note that ~6 out of 18 or one-third of the pins on the page (right) are sponsored ads.

Trend Analysis: Pinterest Predicts

At Pinterest, trend analyses are performed using global analytics by using language search data analysis and visual search technology, implemented by various AI models. Analyses can be performed internally at Pinterest, or using external analytics platforms. Then, Pinterest teams “curate and refine emerging trends” that have growth potential, with aid from predictive analytics and platform engagement data.

All of this is to say that using the data digitally collected by the platform, Pinterest employs several successful AI models to analyze and identify popular and emerging trends. Once this analysis is completed, Pinterest teams use the insights to improve the platform in several ways.

Pinterest Predicts 2025

Hyper Personalization: As mentioned before, insights from trend analysis can be implemented heavily in content algorithms to personalize and align users’ Pinterest experiences to their interests.
Pinterest Predicts: Extrapolating the insights from trend analysis using AI supported predictive analytics allows Pinterest to identify trends that are expected to do well in the upcoming year. Pinterest has productized these insights into Pinterest Predicts (above) - an annual trend forecasting report that highlights trends Pinterest expects to become popular. Pinterest boasts an 80% accuracy rate in the last 5 years, and its predictions have become a social media and cultural phenomenon and an ongoing discussion in the modern world. You can also track current and upcoming trends using the Pinterest Trends dashboard!
Monetizing Pinterest Predicts: Pinterest has taken its predictions a step further by integrating them as a marketing tool for its business strategy . Pinterest encourages their collaborators (partnered companies and content creators) to use the trend insights as guides for their campaigns, and increase opportunities to grow with their audiences. You can view how campaigns have previously implemented the trends and see the positive impact on ROI and revenue in the Pinterest Success Stories section.

At Pinterest, the use of AI in digital analytics has not only provided the company with implementable insights to grow their platforms and improve user experiences, but also with another beloved product (Pinterest Predicts), and a successful marketing strategy that consistently drives up its revenue.

Discover current and future trends on the Pinterest Trends dashboard

Implications & Conclusions

It is clear that Pinterest’s use of AI in digital analytics is an advantage to their marketing and business strategies. It signals a future of more accurate trend prediction, personalized content, seamless visual searches, and smarter ad targeting. While many of these tasks can be done using traditional analytics, AI speeds up the processes considerably. Using AI in digital analytics gives Pinterest a competitive edge, with more opportunities for growth and revenue.

However, it is important to discuss certain concerns with this approach. One key concern is data privacy, as Pinterest’s AI-driven analytics rely on user interactions to refine personalized recommendations and trend prediction. Ensuring transparency in how data is collected and used will be crucial for maintaining user trust. Additionally, algorithmic bias is a challenge - if AI prioritizes certain content types or demographics, it could limit diversity and access in trend predictions and content visibility. Lastly, over-reliance on automation in ad targeting and content curation may reduce organic discovery, impacting creators and smaller businesses. As Pinterest continues leveraging AI, balancing innovation with responsible data use will be essential for long-term success.