The future of search is visual

Visuals have always been key to understanding information. Now, they’re revolutionising search. 

In a recent independent study from Adobe, 73% of respondents said that Pinterest’s visual search results outperform traditional search.¹ Plus, 36% of respondents said that they now start searches on Pinterest instead of traditional search engines.² 

These insights mark a broader shift, especially with younger audiences. Text-based search is losing its edge. So if you’re relying on traditional models, it’s time to update your search marketing strategy.  

It’s about discovery 

Today’s consumers crave exploration. They also deeply value personalisation and want tools that help them to define their unique taste and refine their style in an intuitive way.

At Pinterest, our goal is to bring the joy back to shopping and discovery. Visual search features help replicate that ‘a-ha’ moment of finding what’s uniquely right for you, leaving you with deeper certainty and satisfaction in your decision.

For example, let’s say you’re shopping for a new sofa. A Pin catches your eye, but it doesn’t feel quite right. Tap to search the image and we’ll start suggesting visually similar sofas. You can even search a specific object within that first image to get more shoppable recommendations.

As you engage with our visual search tools, we’ll keep fine-tuning your results until you hit that perfect item. A search that started with ‘green sofa’ ends with a ‘Parisian-chic ruffled velvet loveseat’. It turns out that you just needed that first spark of inspiration.

A push towards multimodal search 

AI has helped us to power multimodal search, which combines text and images to provide even better, uniquely personal results. Our latest visual search updates enable multimodal search for women’s fashion Pins. Just click a Pin, and you’ll see options to refine by text keywords, specific objects in an image or both. All of the options are generated for you, using a mix of AI and search engagement data.

Generated keywords can describe everything from the product’s category and colour palette, to style and fit. They’re insightful details or phrases that someone might not come up with on their own. Let’s say that you like an outfit that you see on Pinterest, but you’re not sure why. Narrow into something niche (plaid skirt) or broaden your style with a vibe that you couldn’t describe at first (eclectic prepster). Even if you’ve never considered those words before, when you see it, it clicks. 

What brands should do now  

The future of search has arrived, so don’t miss the moment. Here are the top three things that you can do right now to help your brand show up in Pinterest’s visual search features: 

1. Make sure your catalogue is current: Upload your catalogue to Pinterest and add quality information like brand name, colour, pricing and sizing. This information helps our systems to understand which products to show for different kinds of queries. See more tips for setting up shopping tools on our blog. 

2. Showcase lifestyle imagery: We recommend using lifestyle imagery as the background for product Pins. Feature a mix of aesthetics and colours to help your Pins show up for more kinds of searches. To scale fast, use Pinterest Performance+ creative to generate backgrounds. This feature automatically adds lifestyle imagery for every product Pin in your catalogue. 

3. Enable Pinterest Performance+ targeting: Pinterest Performance+ targeting uses visual search technology to understand the creative context of your Pins. Then, it expands your audience to include people who might be interacting with similar styles of images or aesthetics. This extends your reach without requiring new keywords or interest targeting.  

Bringing visual search to life at Cannes

Visual search features played a big role at Pinterest’s 2025 Cannes Lions experience. Guests used the power of visuals to search, discover and define their taste. As people entered our space, they saw a 19-foot mural that showcased how people used Pinterest visual search features to plan their trip to Cannes. Then, guests could step inside our immersive style reading activation. Think: Mood ring meets machine learning.

Inside the experience, guests went on a magical journey through their own personal taste. A series of images, colours and Pinterest AI style tags helped people to explore various items and aesthetics. At the end, every guest got a personalised style reading and shopping recommendations based on their vibe. 

Didn’t make it to Cannes Lions? Don’t worry, you can still check out the latest visual search features—right on Pinterest itself. We can’t wait to see what you’ll discover.