Pinterest’s new AI tools help you shop by visuals and vibes

• Pinterest has debuted a set of new AI-powered visual search tools
• The AI tools enable users to explore fashion by vibe, mood, or aesthetic
• The results are aimed at helping produce personalized shopping ideas

Pinterest has always been about visuals over text. Now, with the help of AI, you can figure out how to describe those visual inspirations and even get a chance to buy your favorite items, starting with women’s fashion.

A growing number of Pins on Pinterest will have specific pieces of an outfit or aesthetic highlighted with a shimmering animated glow. Click on, say, the plaid skirt or the blue jacket, and Pinterest will show you some of the words to describe the item and help you find more like it without you needing a fashion dictionary.

Pinterest is using generative AI and Visual Language Models (VLMs) for the new features. The VLMs essentially translate images into searchable terms, decoding your taste from an image and helping you shop for it. It’s like a more nuanced reverse image search tool, one that can converse with you about your interest in vivid tones and stereopunk plaid.

You’re not expected to describe your dream outfit with perfect vocabulary. You’re not expected to know what kind of tailoring makes a jacket “structured casual.” You just have to know that you liked that one look for its vibe. Pinterest takes it from there.

“Our visual search technology represents a shift in how users interact with and discover inspiration,” Pinterest vice president of design Dana Cho said in a statement. “We’re not simply delivering search results – we’re curating a personalized journey of discovery that empowers individuals to find their unique style, and shop it too.”

Pin AI

There are other new AI features as well, including a new refinement bar that lets you tweak results on the fly. For instance, if you like a look but want to change its color or styling, you can use the refinement bar to filter for them or other elements like fabric.

And if you spot something you want to use to start a visual search from within the app, you just need to long-press on it. Pinterest says it plans to expand the AI tools beyond women’s fashion eventually, but it makes sense that it would start there when it’s such a major facet of the platform.

Pinterest’s new tools don’t mean it’s entirely trusting of AI. The company has also begun adding new labels for AI-modified or AI-generated images and giving users the option to see fewer of them via topic filters. It’s a small but smart nod to the fact that inspiration is great, but that reality still matters when you’re shopping for actual clothing.

Still, it’s an interesting approach to online shopping, and one that fits the way people shop in person by looking at clothes, not just describing them. The AI is like a personal shopper who understands most people rely on visual impressions and gut feelings to decide what to buy, rather than knowing stitch patterns and trend terms.

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Eric Hal Schwartz is a freelance writer for TechRadar with more than 15 years of experience covering the intersection of the world and technology. For the last five years, he served as head writer for Voicebot.ai and was on the leading edge of reporting on generative AI and large language models. He’s since become an expert on the products of generative AI models, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, Google Gemini, and every other synthetic media tool. His experience runs the gamut of media, including print, digital, broadcast, and live events. Now, he’s continuing to tell the stories people want and need to hear about the rapidly evolving AI space and its impact on their lives. Eric is based in New York City.