LinkedIn announced on Tuesday its plans to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) features into its core services, revolutionizing how recruiters find job candidates and simplifying ad campaign creation for marketing professionals. Leveraging technology from OpenAI, in which Microsoft has invested, LinkedIn aims to enhance user interactions on its platform. With over 950 million members, LinkedIn primarily generates revenue by offering recruiters, marketing, and sales professionals access to its vast data repository.
Traditionally, these users had to employ data filters, keywords, and other search engine techniques to navigate LinkedIn’s database. This involved translating natural queries, such as “I want to hire a software developer with 10 years of experience in Minneapolis,” into language comprehensible to the platform’s database. The new AI-infused features now allow recruiters to ask questions naturally, with the computer responding with additional queries. For instance, it may inquire if the recruiter is open to considering qualified applicants in other cities where the company has offices or individuals with slightly different job titles but similar skill sets.
Ryan Roslansky, CEO of LinkedIn, emphasized the need to adapt to an era where job titles evolve rapidly. LinkedIn aims to encourage hiring based on skills that align with job requirements, regardless of traditional titles or educational backgrounds. Roslansky commented, “When you just focus on whether someone went to an Ivy League school or worked at Google, you’re talking about a very narrow set of people that everyone is trying to hire. When you focus on the skills that are required to do the job effectively, all of a sudden, you see there are tens of thousands of candidates out there. You can’t just look at job titles.”
LinkedIn is also rolling out similar AI-powered tools for sales professionals seeking prospects. Additionally, they are introducing a tool that utilizes AI to analyze a company’s website and create targeted marketing campaigns for business-to-business products and services, which will run on LinkedIn’s platform.
Despite these transformative changes, LinkedIn has no plans to charge extra for the new AI features. Instead, they intend to enhance the platform’s overall user experience. Some of these features may automate certain aspects of users’ roles. Roslansky acknowledged, “For the majority of the world, you’re going to find that those tasks are going to be augmented by AI, so your role is going to need to adapt a little bit.”
By Impact Lab