Pinterest launches AI auto-collages and enhanced trend forecasting tools
Pinterest unveils automated collage creation and upgraded trend analysis featuring shopping insights ahead of Cannes Lions.
Pinterest announced on June 11, 2025, two significant artificial intelligence-powered advertising developments designed to enhance creative production and trend forecasting capabilities for advertisers. The visual discovery platform introduced auto-collages through Pinterest Ad Labs and upgraded its Trends tool with shopping behavior insights.
Auto-collages represent a new AI feature enabling advertisers to transform existing product catalogs into thousands of shoppable collages within minutes. According to Pinterest, early testing showed users saved auto-collages at twice the rate of regular product Pins. The technology leverages tens of millions of user-created collages combined with AI to automatically generate engaging visual content.
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Summary
Who: Pinterest, with quotes from Julie Towns (VP Product Marketing and Operations), Subbu Chandrasekaran (eBay Marketing Platforms), and testing participation from Macy's.
What: Launch of AI-powered auto-collages that convert product catalogs into shoppable visual content, plus enhanced Pinterest Trends tool with shopping behavior insights including saving patterns and purchase intent data.
When: Announced June 11, 2025, ahead of Cannes Lions 2025 International Festival of Creativity.
Where: Global rollout through Pinterest Ad Labs, with auto-collages initially tested with select partners like Macy's before broader advertiser access.
Why: To help advertisers maintain relevance amid rapid cultural changes by providing scalable creative production and deeper consumer trend insights that span from inspiration to purchase intent.
"Auto-collage was born out of the Pinterest Ads Labs programme that launched last year, where we innovate new generative AI products that help brands stay ahead of the curve," said Julie Towns, Pinterest Vice President for Product Marketing and Operations. "The auto-collages tool is an exciting leap that harnesses AI to instantly transform how brands turn their product catalogue into fresh creative that resonates with Gen Z and beyond."
The auto-collage system operates through four distinct mechanisms. Outfit ideas functionality identifies clothing items that form stylish looks based on existing outfits and constructs new outfit collages. User engagement analysis creates collages that emulate existing content with strong user interaction. Similar products selection groups comparable items together in grid-style layouts. User saves capability generates personalized collages featuring products similar to items users have saved on their boards.
Macy's currently participates in testing and providing feedback on auto-collages. Pinterest plans to gradually expand access to additional advertisers in coming months. The development builds on Pinterest's previous AI initiatives, including Performance+ campaigns that already outperform traditional campaigns in 80% of A/B tests.
The platform simultaneously enhanced its Pinterest Trends tool with first-of-their-kind shopping insights. The upgraded system now analyzes not only search data but also user saving, board curation, and shopping behaviors. According to Pinterest, trends on the platform last nearly twice as long as elsewhere, driven by over half a billion users exploring personal interests.
Shopping trends functionality transforms Pinterest curation into advertiser insights. For example, skincare brands targeting Gen Z can analyze planned purchases based on board saves and retailer website clicks. The system visualizes top trending searches within categories to inform upcoming campaigns.
Trends in the Spotlight groups trends into high-level themes based on user saving patterns, eliminating guesswork from trend analysis. Skincare brands can now examine the top five trending topics under beauty categories with accompanying descriptions and visuals for campaign creative development.
Editors' Picks delivers data-backed cultural trends curated by Pinterest staff that resonate with users. Brands can respond to cultural moments by converting these trends into campaigns through Editorial Sponsorship.
"Pinterest's trends data is highly valuable for understanding what matters to shoppers on any given day. It not only offers insights into what users are actively searching for but also enables us to build systems that identify which trends are truly shoppable," said Subbu Chandrasekaran, Marketing Platforms at eBay. "We're excited to leverage this innovation to better connect our inventory with high-intent relevant audiences."
The developments address growing advertiser pressure to maintain relevance amid rapid cultural changes. Pinterest positions these tools as solutions enabling brands to move from inspiration to action, spanning top-of-funnel awareness through bottom-of-funnel conversion.
These announcements follow Pinterest's recent expansion of programmatic partnerships with Index Exchange and Criteo, demonstrating the platform's continued evolution toward comprehensive advertising solutions. The timing aligns with broader industry trends toward AI-powered creative automation, as evidenced by similar developments from competing platforms.
Pinterest will showcase these innovations at Cannes Lions 2025, where company leaders will highlight how the platform's combination of trend foresight and creative tools helps brands transform inspiration into action. The festival represents a significant opportunity for Pinterest to demonstrate its advertising capabilities to global marketing executives.
For the marketing community, these developments signal several important trends. The auto-collage functionality addresses the growing demand for scalable creative production, particularly relevant for e-commerce advertisers managing extensive product catalogs. The enhanced Trends tool provides deeper consumer behavior insights that extend beyond traditional search analytics.
The focus on Gen Z engagement through collages reflects Pinterest's strategic positioning within younger demographics. Collages already rank among the most popular content types for Gen Z Pinterest users, making automated collage generation particularly valuable for brands targeting this audience.
The integration of shopping behavior data into trend analysis represents a significant advancement in consumer insight capabilities. Traditional trend tools primarily focus on search volume, while Pinterest's approach incorporates saving patterns, board curation, and purchase intent signals.
These developments position Pinterest within the broader ecosystem of AI-powered advertising innovations that have characterized the platform's recent product roadmap. The automated creative production aligns with industry-wide shifts toward efficiency-driven marketing operations.
Pinterest's approach differs from competitors by focusing on visual discovery patterns and long-term trend durability. The platform's claim that trends last twice as long as elsewhere reflects its unique position in the consumer planning journey, where users typically engage during early consideration phases.
The technical implementation leverages Pinterest's existing AI and visual clustering technologies. The company has not disclosed specific technical details about the underlying machine learning models powering auto-collage generation or trend analysis enhancements.
Timeline
June 11, 2025: Pinterest announces AI-powered auto-collages and enhanced Trends tool ahead of Cannes Lions
2024: Pinterest launches Performance+ campaigns with AI-driven optimization capabilities
September 8, 2024: IAS and Pinterest launch Total Media Quality measurement for brand safety
October 1, 2024: Pinterest unveils Performance+ suite with AI targeting and creative tools
January 28, 2025: Pinterest expands programmatic access through Index Exchange and Criteo partnerships
February 12, 2025: Pinterest reports 3.6x higher engagement for dual-placement advertising campaigns
April 17, 2025: Pinterest launches Performance Essentials skills badge for lower-funnel marketing