Earlier this month, when LinkedIn began seeding “AI-powered conversation starters” into people’s news feeds to drive engagement on its platform, the move saw more than little engagement of its own, none too positive.
But the truth of the matter with LinkedIn is that they’ve been using a lot of AI and other types of automation in different aspects of their platform for years, mostly behind the scenes with how they build and operate their network. Now, with its owner Microsoft betting on OpenAI, it looks like it’s also becoming a more prominent part of LinkedIn’s strategy on the front-end, with the latest coming today in the areas of LinkedIn profiles, recruiting, and LinkedIn learning. .
The company is introducing AI-powered writing suggestions today, which will initially be offered to people to enhance their LinkedIn profiles and to recruiters writing job descriptions. Both are based on advanced GPT models, said Tomer Cohen, LinkedIn’s chief product officer. LinkedIn is using GPT-4 for custom profiles, with GPT-3.5 for job descriptions. In addition to this, the company is also creating a greater focus on AI in LinkedIn Learning, hosting 100 courses on the subject and adding 20 more focused on generative AI alone.
AI Writing Prompts for Profiles, initially available to paying Premium users, is intended to help people who are having trouble writing their own compelling summaries of who they are, but could at least spell out some of what they are. they have done. which in turn translate into a more fluid narrative by the AI.
Image Credits: LinkedIn
Our tool identifies the most important skills and experiences to highlight in your About and Headline sections, and creates suggestions to make your profile stand out. “By doing the heavy lifting for you, the tool saves you time and energy while maintaining your unique voice and style.” It encourages you to “review and edit” suggested content before adding it to your profile.
Job descriptions, meanwhile, will work on a similar principle: A recruiter types in some basic information, including the job title and company name. “Our tool will then generate a suggested job description for you to review and edit, saving you time and effort while giving you the flexibility to customize the posting to your needs,” Cohen notes in a blog post. “By simplifying this part of the hiring process, you can focus your energy on more strategic aspects of your job.”
While both aim to save users time and get them to keep those profiles more up to date, or to stimulate more recruiting business by making it easier to activate those job profiles, I can think of at least one reason why this might not be the case. ideal.
For those who write their profiles, if the goal of the profile is to get a sense of the person you are potentially recruiting or networking with, you are moving further from that essence by using AI to generate those descriptions. Ultimately, that could mean more rather than less wasted time for recruiters and others who might be checking out a profile and looking to make a connection.
That would be less the case with recruitment ads, which already feel very bland these days and often don’t give anyone an accurate idea of what to expect in a particular position, let alone what it would be like. work for a particular company.
In general, the release of these tools underscores how powerful AI can be, but that universal application is not always the best. A LinkedIn spokesperson said that “this is just the beginning” and that the company “will continue to leverage generative AI to explore new ways to bring value to our members and customers.”
