Today's tech zeitgeist is centered around artificial intelligence, and LinkedIn announced a series of new AI-powered services on Thursday in an effort to drive more users and usage.
The company is betting big on AI and how people want it woven into their experiences on the platform, introducing tools that do everything from helping people find and apply for jobs (yes, there are tools that will write all of your applications and cover letters for you), to suggesting relevant learning materials (AI-related, of course), to searching across LinkedIn to find what you need more quickly.
We'll discuss some of the key features LinkedIn is rolling out below, but first let's review some of LinkedIn's current key AI focuses.
First, as we've noted before, this isn't LinkedIn's first foray into AI: the company has been incorporating the technology into its products since the company's early days, and it's no exaggeration to say that there is very little about the company that doesn't involve AI.
“We've been using AI since 2007,” Tomer Cohen, the company's head of product, told TechCrunch in an interview this week. Indeed, the company's connectivity proposition, while often quite creepy, is an example of how it actually works. “We use AI a lot to connect people, for defense and to maintain trust in the ecosystem. It's one of our most powerful tools.”
The big change LinkedIn doesn't want to miss is one sweeping the tech industry: a wave of AI-powered tools aimed at helping ordinary people complete human-centric tasks.
LinkedIn has already been active in that sense: The company released a set of tools powered by OpenAI in October 2023, and a month later added reading and writing tools, as well as tools to help with creating profiles, job ads, and company pages.
Second, LinkedIn has relatively low expectations to meet compared to its peers. Big social players like Meta and X face varying levels of existential threat from the explosion of interest in generative AI. How will they respond? How will they lead? Should they lead? And perhaps more directly, how will they ensure that the new doesn't exclude their business from the next stage of growth?
Image credit: LinkedIn
LinkedIn is, of course, owned by Microsoft, which owns a 49% stake in OpenAI and has active AI efforts of its own, essentially removing the pressure from LinkedIn itself to innovate or invest in innovators, allowing it to focus on how it builds or integrates tools for its own use.
Below is an overview of some of the new features:
Job search and apply: We're introducing a new way to search for jobs using conversation prompts. Of course, it depends on the data and what jobs actually exist. For example, if you're looking for a journalism job in London paying a minimum salary of £100,000, you're likely not going to get many hits, no matter how you phrase it.
If you want to find and apply for a job, you'll be able to write a cover letter or reference, and the AI will further review your resume and any other work you've done.
Personalized learning. LinkedIn continues to push its video-based learning platform, which appears to be catching on strongly among users looking to improve their AI skills. Cohen said traffic to AI-related courses (which includes modules on technical skills as well as non-technical skills, such as a basic introduction to generative AI) has increased 160% over the last year.
There’s no doubt that LinkedIn is enhancing its search algorithms to generate interest, but it’s also leveraging AI in other ways to enhance content.
For premium subscribers, the company is piloting what it calls “AI-powered expert advice,” in which LinkedIn's AI-powered coach will provide users with tailored answers as a “starting point,” using the expertise of notable speakers such as Alicia Rees, Anil Gupta, Dr. Jemma Lee Roberts, and Lisa Gates, the company said.
These also appear as personalized coaches that users can tap on while watching LinkedIn Learning courses.
The third big area where LinkedIn is relying heavily on AI is in search, and if you already use LinkedIn in any way, you'll know that this is long overdue, as search has been one of the most neglected parts of the experience on the platform, especially as the platform has grown.
LinkedIn says it will provide more details about the new search experience in the coming weeks, but expect to see more conversational search as a simpler alternative or replacement to the current search experience, which uses parameters like keywords, network distance and geography but never feels like it gives you a complete answer.
In addition to these, LinkedIn is expanding its Recruiter 2024 offering, adding tools for marketers and introducing enhanced Premium Company Pages for small businesses.