LinkedIn

LinkedIn soars to 1 billion users and uses a new AI chatbot to revolutionize job hunting

In addition to releasing further generative AI tools for Premium members, LinkedIn released a chatbot driven by artificial intelligence on Wednesday. The chatbot is marketed as a "job seeker coach." The revelation by LinkedIn that its platform had more than one billion members coincided with the rollouts. For several months now, the Microsoft-owned company has been emphasizing products such as AI-powered profile writing ideas, job descriptions, and automated recruiter messaging.

Powered by OpenAI's GPT-4, the new AI chatbot went live for certain Premium customers on Wednesday. Its primary goal is to assist users in determining whether a job application is worthwhile. Microsoft has made significant financial investments in OpenAI. According to Erran Berger, vice president of product engineering at LinkedIn, the platform side required significant resource allocation from the engineering team to lower latency.

In an interview with CNBC, Berger stated, "We had to build a lot of stuff on our end to work around that and to make this a snappy experience." Sometimes it's almost like search when you're having these verbal experiences; you expect it to happen instantly. Therefore, to make that feasible, we had to establish actual platform capabilities. Following eight consecutive quarters of decreasing growth, LinkedIn is attempting to pick up the pace of revenue growth. The corporation disclosed about 700 job losses two weeks earlier, most of which came from the engineering division.

The new chatbot may be launched by users by choosing one of several questions, including "Am I a good fit for this job?" from a job posting. "What is the best way for me to position myself for this job?" A user's LinkedIn profile and experience would be analyzed by the tool in response to the first request, which would result in responses like, "Your profile shows that you have extensive experience in marketing and event planning, which is relevant for this role." Additionally, the chatbot will highlight any experience gaps that can be detrimental to a user during the job application process.

Gyanda Sachdeva, vice president of product management at LinkedIn, told CNBC, "We don't take that lightly at all. The quality of responses has to be good for the stakes to be as high as they are here." Inquiring about the company's workforce allows the user to follow up and receive a few employee profiles from the chatbot. These profiles may include second- or third-degree connections, which the user can message about the opportunity. With generative AI, the message itself can also be written.

Numerous AI hiring and employment application practices have previously come under fire for their prejudice against underrepresented groups. One instance was the alleged usage of a recruiting engine by Amazon, which allegedly downvoted resumes mentioning women's universities or containing the term "women." An examination of respondents' recommendations on job boards by the Harvard Business Review found prejudice against African-American applicants in different research.

"We've made significant investments to ensure that this remains somewhat within the bounds of what satisfies our responsible AI standards," Berger stated. "When you combine that with our in-house AI models for job matching which we have been doing for a while you get this incredibly tailored, equity-minded experience for our job searchers."