Pinterest recently introduced an app called Ask Pinterest. It is one of the most exciting developments from the platform. The Ask Pinterest app is not an update to the Pinterest app but a new experimental and separate app. It is built around a single idea: what if shopping discovery worked more like a conversation?
This new application can be used now on a limited basis in the US, but the idea behind it is worth paying attention to, because it points to a much bigger shift in how people find and buy things online.
What Ask Pinterest Actually Does
Users can speak in a conversational and plain language to get personalized recommendations for products on Ask Pinterest. The app does not give the user back a list of keywords, but gives personalized recommendations based on the provided context and their interests.
In addition, the app can retain context across different sessions for weeks. So, if last week you told the app that you were furnishing your bedroom in a contemporary style with a $1,500 budget, and today, you ask about carpets or lamps, it will give you relevant suggestions. Most shopping tools reset every time you open them.
Additionally, it can use the saved Pins and Boards of the user as part of its recommendations algorithm. This way, the app starts not from scratch but based on a lot of user information. That is a pretty powerful starting point for a shopping assistant. It is not an AI tool that learns about users from the very beginning; instead, the Pinterest system has a wealth of information about a person from day one.
Pinterest calls this internal data system the Taste Graph. It is essentially a map that connects users to their interests and aesthetic preferences across millions of data points. Ask Pinterest is, in a lot of ways, the most direct product expression of that asset the company has ever built. And it is something no competitor can easily replicate, because you cannot just build a Taste Graph overnight.
Why Pinterest Built a Separate App
A smart choice by Pinterest was to develop a dedicated Ask Pinterest app as opposed to introducing conversational AI in the main app. Pinterest has 631 million monthly active users who have a very specific relationship with the platform. These are users coming to browse, save, and discover content. The user habits related to this process are already well-established. By introducing a conversational interface, the app would disrupt users’ routine. In addition, doing so might cause some confusion among people who came to use the service differently.
Developing a dedicated app allows Pinterest to test ideas without interfering with the core functionality of its flagship service. If something works, Pinterest can bring it into the main app thoughtfully. If it doesn’t, nothing is broken. Pinterest confirmed that it plans to use insights from Ask Pinterest to build additional AI-powered features for its flagship product.
So this is not just an experiment for its own sake. It is a research and development tool dressed up as a consumer product. The people who use it are essentially helping Pinterest figure out what the next version of the main app could look like. Therefore, in its current form, Ask Pinterest is a testing tool wrapped in the guise of consumer app development.
It shows a level of product discipline you do not always see when companies are rushing to slap AI onto everything they already have.
The Bigger Context: AI Is Changing How People Shop
Ask Pinterest is not the only one making these changes. It would seem that there is a race going on right now for control over the future of e-commerce discovery between AI assistants and search engines. In this case, every significant technology corporation already has made up its mind.
Google is putting a lot of effort into implementing AI functionalities, such as conversational search, price tracking, and self-purchase capabilities, into its shopping products. ChatGPT has also experimented with AI-powered shopping recently. Finally, it seems like Meta is building its own AI-based system of commerce by creating agentic agents capable of browsing the web on your behalf via Facebook and Instagram. Therefore, it would be reasonable to expect a paradigm shift in how people make purchases online soon, and everyone wants to have a piece of it.
The difference of Ask Pinterest lies in the fact that it does not try to be an all-knowing AI agent that can answer any question. It will be using its own AI technologies to give personalized suggestions that take into account the unique taste of the users as presented by means of the pictures shared by the users. While some may choose to monetize their databases of users’ preferences, Pinterest decided to develop its AI algorithms based on those databases. Therefore, Taste Graph can be regarded as its competitive advantage.
When launching Ask Pinterest, Chief Business Officer of Pinterest Lee Brown stated explicitly that the future of search and discovery is not dependent on people knowing the right keywords anymore. In fact, as Mr. Brown mentioned himself, it is all about using taste, context, and trustworthy recommendations. This is not only a statement, but an objective truth about the current direction of consumer behavior.
What This Means for Shoppers
If you ever got unsatisfactory results with regular search, Ask Pinterest may solve your problem. You can ask for things that do not have a one-word answer or an easy-to-describe solution. For instance, how should I help my friends organize a Mediterranean-themed dinner party for 12 with a $200 budget? Or questions like – how should I furnish my apartment with warm and minimalist items on a tight budget?
These kinds of questions are very difficult for a keyword-based search engine. It requires some degree of intelligence to be able to take multiple variables into account and provide useful responses. Moreover, there are a lot of nuances that can be picked up by a conversational AI that has known your tastes for years. That’s exactly what Ask Pinterest aims to achieve.
And the session memory piece is bigger than it sounds. Currently, users have to store all necessary information themselves because there is no convenient way to remember it while searching. You build up a conversation over time, and the app holds the thread for you.
At the moment, the service is quite experimental and only available in the United States. However, it is a very timely move, given the current interest in AI-driven recommendation services. With time, the service will gain more experience and become even more helpful. And for a platform that has always been about planning and inspiration rather than impulse buying, this is the most logical direction Pinterest could have gone.
FAQs
Q 1: What is Ask Pinterest?
Ask Pinterest is a standalone experimental app offered by Pinterest which enables you to shop for products or services by making natural language requests in conversational format.
Q 2: Is Ask Pinterest part of the main Pinterest app?
No. It is a completely separate application. Pinterest built it as a standalone product so it can experiment freely without disrupting the main Pinterest experience.
Q 3: Where is Ask Pinterest available?
It is currently available in limited access in the United States only.
Q 4: What makes Ask Pinterest different from regular search?
The app offers multi-step conversational shopping requests. This means that Ask Pinterest is able to remember context from previous searches, which enables it to complete tasks that involve a series of requests and actions.
Q 5: Can Ask Pinterest use my saved Pins?
Yes, it can leverage your previously saved Pins to create personalized recommendations.
Q 6: What is the Taste Graph?
Taste Graph is an internal system by Pinterest that analyzes your taste preferences, interests, aesthetic and personal preferences by taking into account your years of Pinterest activity.
Q 7: Why did Pinterest make this a separate app instead of adding it to the main one?
Pinterest did not want to disrupt its existing Pinterest experience. The separate app lets the platform conduct experiments and learn about how AI might shape its future products without changing any of the existing experiences.
Q 8: How does Ask Pinterest fit into the broader AI shopping trend?
Pinterest’s Ask app fits well into a wider AI shopping trend in which tech companies are trying to compete with Google Shopping and win over customers by offering conversational shopping assistants powered by artificial intelligence.
Q 9: Will Ask Pinterest features eventually come to the main Pinterest app?
While it’s difficult to predict the exact timeframe of when Ask features will be integrated with Pinterest, Pinterest’s CEO has stated that it has already learned a lot from Ask which will be leveraged to build new AI-powered features in Pinterest.
Q 10: What did Pinterest’s Chief Business Officer say about the future of discovery?
Lee Brown said the future of discovery will not rely only on keywords and that the future of online discovery is going to be determined by context, taste, and recommendations, which is something that Pinterest feels comfortable competing with in comparison to other platforms.
