Pinterest is planning on laying off up to 15 percent of its workforce, . The company has been , so why punish employees? You already know the answer. It’s AI.
The company said it’s “reallocating resources” to AI projects and prioritizing “AI-powered products and capabilities.” It’s also cutting down on office space, presumably because AI algorithms don’t require cubicles and the occasional low-grade snack.
Pinterest noted in a that it expects these cuts to the workforce will be complete by the end of the third quarter in September. The company had 4,500 global employees , so the layoffs should impact up to 675 people.
It will also be reshaping its sales and marketing strategies, likely to highlight new AI initiatives. To that end, Pinterest introduced an a few months back.
“Our investments in AI and product innovation are paying off,” Pinterest CEO Bill Ready . “We’ve become a leader in visual search and have effectively turned our platform into an AI-powered shopping assistant for 600 million customers.”
Unfortunately, becoming a “leader in visual search” has created some headaches for end users. The platform has become overridden with AI-generated slop, leading the company to introduce a dial to .
Pinterest is just the latest company to downsize in favor of AI. A consulting firm found that AI was the stated blame for around .
This leads some to question the veracity of this reasoning, as some entities could be engaging in . This is when companies exaggerate the use of AI and blame it for standard cost-cutting layoffs, leading investors to think “ooh, shiny.”
