It appears the layoff season is making a comeback. After Meta, which recently laid off 10% of its entire Reality Labs division, another platform is making moves. The platform in question, Pinterest, has announced layoffs affecting its workforce in a move to double down on AI. It will also reduce its office space to reallocate resources for its AI initiatives.
Pinterest layoffs affect 15% of its workforce
In a regulatory filing posted on January 27th (Tuesday), Pinterest says that layoffs will affect fewer than 15% of its current workforce as it focuses on AI. As of the end of 2024, the company had 4,666 full-time employees. This means around 700 employees are impacted by this new announcement. Pinterest adds that the layoffs will be complete by September 30th, 2026.
The regulatory document adds that this move is to support three “transformation initiatives,” including reallocating resources to AI-focused roles and teams that drive AI adoption and execution, prioritizing AI-powered products and capabilities, and accelerating the transformation of its sales and go-to-market approach. Two of these initiatives are related to AI.
Around 700 employees will be impacted
“We are making organizational changes to further deliver on our AI-forward strategy, which includes hiring AI-proficient talent. As a result, we’ve made the difficult decision to say goodbye to some of our team members. We are grateful for their service and supporting them with separation packages and benefits,” said Pinterest spokesperson Tessa Chen in a statement to The Verge.
These changes will cost Pinterest pre-tax restructuring charges of around $35 million to $45 million. Pinterest users have criticized the flood of AI-generated content on the platform, so much so that it led the company to make features that detect AI images and hide them in feeds. Still, this hasn’t deterred Pinterest from injecting the technology across its platform.
Pinterest, in October, released an AI Pinterest Shopping assistant that offers personalized recommendations. In November, the company’s CEO, Bill Ready, said that “our investments in AI and product innovation are paying off.” He noted that the platform had become “an AI-powered shopping assistant for 600 million consumers.”
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