Pinterest Leadership Overhaul Accelerates AI Shopping Shift

Pinterest has announced significant changes to its senior leadership structure as the company intensifies its focus on AI-powered shopping technology and performance advertising capabilities.

The visual discovery platform has appointed two new executives to roles that CEO Bill Ready says could be central to scaling its machine learning infrastructure and commercial technology operations.

The company has hired Lee Brown as its first Chief Business Officer and Claudine Cheever as its new Chief Marketing Officer, according to interviews with Axios.

The appointments come as Pinterest positions itself as an AI-driven commerce platform, leveraging machine learning to personalise shopping experiences and advertising performance.

Lee, who brings experience from technology companies including DoorDash and Spotify, will oversee all customer-facing operations, including sales, advertising technology and content platforms.

Claudine joins from Amazon, where she spent more than a decade in senior marketing roles focused on digital commerce.

Both executives will report directly to the CEO.

Centralising AI-powered commercial operations

Lee's newly created role could be designed to consolidate Pinterest's technology-driven commercial operations at a time when the company sees multiple opportunities to monetise its AI capabilities.

His remit includes expanding the platform's advertising technology infrastructure globally, deepening automated solutions for small and medium-sized businesses and scaling Pinterest's content business through algorithmic recommendations.

Bill told Axios of the new role: "The new Chief Business Officer role brings together all customer-facing touchpoints at a moment where we have a number of new revenue opportunities."

Several senior leaders will now report to the new CBO, including Chief Content Officer Malik Ducard and Julie Towns, who leads ads product marketing.

With Lee's arrival, Pinterest's long-time Chief Revenue Officer Bill Watkins will depart after more than a decade at the company.

Lee says: "Whether its Spotify, DoorDash or BuzzFeed – at all of these companies, I've turned consumer demand to strong advertising opportunities by deepening client relationships, customer operations and content partnerships."

AI-tuned positivity as commercial differentiator

Claudine's appointment as CMO reflects Pinterest's strategy to communicate how its AI technology differs from traditional engagement-driven algorithms.

Bill told Axios the company could have more opportunity to articulate its story as AI-powered shopping and automated advertising accelerate on the platform.

"We think there's a much better story for us to tell, from a marketing perspective, that goes along with that shopping and commercialisation growth," he says.

He adds that Claudine can help articulate why Pinterest's AI approach, which uses machine learning optimised for positive experiences rather than engagement maximisation, could be commercially viable.

"By tuning AI for positivity and rejecting engagement via enragement," Bill says, Pinterest can be a brand "that can make a lot more."

Claudine her focus will be on helping marketers understand how Pinterest now uses AI to personalise relevance in a way that feels helpful rather than intrusive.

For her, the platform is positioned to "really automate and personalise that relevance, and it will never feel creepy or weird. It will feel rich and useful".

Technology-driven growth strategy gains momentum

The leadership changes come as Pinterest continues to report strong user and revenue growth under CEO Bill, who joined the company in 2022.

The platform has recorded nine consecutive quarters of record user figures, according to Axios, and has expanded its AI capabilities to serve more international and younger audiences, with Gen Z users representing a significant and increasing share of its user base.

In a LinkedIn post announcing the appointments in January 2025, Bill says: "Over the past three and a half years, we've made significant progress at Pinterest: reaching a record 600 million MAU, turning Pinterest into an AI-powered shopping destination and performance ad platform.

"It's an important moment for us as we continue to grow our business globally.

"I am confident that with the addition of Lee and Claudine, we will reach new heights and continue to win market share".

The C-suite changes could reinforce Bill's broader strategy to shift Pinterest from passive inspiration to actionable, AI-driven shopping through machine learning personalisation and automated advertising performance.