‘Magical’: LinkedIn places powerful AI tools in the hands of recruiters and jobseekers

Would you hire someone who used AI to write their resume? LinkedIn says this is the future and the technology will streamline the ‘matchmaking process’ in recruitment.

LinkedIn is providing a suite of powerful AI tools to recruiters and jobseekers. Picture: iStock

LinkedIn is providing powerful artificial intelligence tools to recruiters and jobseekers, saying the much-hyped technology can streamline what it calls the “matchmaking process”.

AI is revolutionising job hiring, from writing requisitions and advertisements to screening applications and drafting interview questions that can even drill into resume gaps. On the candidate side, AI can almost act as a coach, helping prepare for what is a notoriously daunting process.

But LinkedIn chief product officer Tomer Cohen said AI’s rampant rise in recruitment is not providing a situation where the technology talks to itself, effectively sidelining humans.

“At LinkedIn for many years we saw our job as the matchmaker between the dream career opportunity, the dream employers to the dream candidate … and trying to make the best match possible,” Mr Cohens said.

“With this new era of AI, what’s happening … is you’re not just doing matchmaking, you’re also giving that personal assistance/coach guide to each side to be able to perform in the best way possible. Recruiters are able to do a lot more of the strategic human work than they used to before.”

As for jobseekers, Mr Cohen says many want to alleviate the anxiety involved in scouring job ads to find a right match, writing applications and preparing for potential interviews.

“They just want to get the job done. So what we’re trying to do a lot is to make that process not just a lot more efficient, but really help people go back to what they’re great at, those human strategic skills that they have, so that process just becomes almost magical in a way.”

But AI in recruitment can also sound daunting. A hiring manager can upload a resume and a job description into an AI chatbot and ask it to generate laser-focused questions for a potential candidate.

LinkedIn chief product officer Tomer Cohen.

On the flip side, the same technology is available to jobseekers to better prepare for interviews.

For Mr Cohen, he says flexibility is key and people need to focus less on job titles and more on skills, and getting up to speed with how to use AI is crucial.

“We’re seeing right now, the fact that for professionals, even if you’re not changing your job, your job is changing,” he said, adding in Australia job skills will change on average by 66 per cent by the end of the decade.

This is similar to the International Monetary Fund analysis, which last month found AI in advanced economies — such as the US, UK and Australia — will affect about 60 per cent of jobs.

The IMF said for about half those jobs “AI applications may execute key tasks currently performed by humans, which could lower labour demand, leading to lower wages and reduced hiring”.

“By 2030 your job will change. The only question is are you changing with your job, are you learning the skills to change with your jobs?” Mr Cohen said.

“Now some jobs will be changed more rapidly, some less, but they’re all materially changing with AI. That means that companies have to adapt, that means professionals have to adapt, it means that economies have to adapt. And in many ways, it starts with AI literacy, being able to learn AI skills.”

LinkedIn’s AI tools include personalised writing suggestions for profiles, which draw on existing content to highlight skills and experience. The company says this helps users stand out for twice as many job opportunities.

Other AI features include drafting messages to recruiters or other LinkedIn users. It uses information from the profiles of the subscriber and the hiring manager to personalise content.

“A lot of the things we’re bringing to market is a whole AI Academy to help people learn those skills, whether it’s companies training their own people, or whether it’s professionals learning AI skills so they can come to the marketplace ready and prepared to do what is an evolving job of theirs,” Mr Cohen said.