- Artificial intelligence is sweeping industries and raising questions about its impacts on jobs.
- LinkedIn sees potential for AI to amplify — not replace — creators’ voices.
- Two LinkedIn execs tell Insider about the platform’s AI-driven innovations, like collaborative articles.
Every week, some 50 million professionals visit LinkedIn looking for a new job or the next phase of their career growth.
And “millions more come to LinkedIn to share insights, stay connected, and learn,” according to Keren Baruch, a director of product management at the social-networking giant. Firmly of the view that artificial intelligence technology can augment and amplify those users’ voices — not replace them — LinkedIn is eyeing opportunities in the burgeoning space.
The advent of tools like Sam Altman’s ChatGPT is dominating headlines, but behind the scenes, companies are confronting their impact on industries and workforces. Though AI offers the potential to synthesize vast troves of data, streamline the talent recruiting process, or spit out content almost instantly, it’s simultaneously stoking fears about digital brains supplanting human ones, particularly in areas like copywriting or coding.
But LinkedIn is hoping to leverage the power of AI to be a professional accelerant rather than a career ender. Last month, the company debuted collaborative articles, a new AI-driven feature that solicits users’ professional perspectives on an array of work-related topics; and made dozens of free courses available to help users better understand the implications of AI for business.
They’re two of the latest steps LinkedIn has taken to transform itself from a digital collection of users’ CVs to a comprehensive platform for creators.
The collaborative articles feature constitutes “a new way to tap into the collective knowledge of the Linkedin community,” the company says, adding that the articles are “AI-powered conversation starters, developed with our editorial team, but they aren’t complete without insights from our members.”
In practice, the tool fosters forums of LinkedIn users who are experts on specific topics, inviting them to share their insights about queries such as how to get a promotion, ways to boost inclusivity in workplace culture, and best practices for handling risk and uncertainty in innovation. User-contributed articles span more than 20 industries and topics including marketing, IT services, sustainability, real estate, and more.
New collaborative articles are born when artificial intelligence, in tandem with LinkedIn’s editorial team, generates threads of text regarding specific work-related topics or skills. Then, LinkedIn’s Skills Graph, a machine learning-based tool, scans users’ profiles to determine who has the authority or interest to weigh in with their own point of view. Those users are invited to contribute, and their responses are made available for the benefit of others on the platform.
LinkedIn’s collaborative articles begin with a thread generated with the help of AI, and then invite select users to contribute their perspective.
Courtesy of LinkedIn
Harnessing users’ ’10 billion years of work experience’ to solve workplace problems
To Lakshman Somasundaram, also a director of product management whose team developed the new feature, one of the “cool” attributes about the platform’s global community of users is their collective “10 billion years of work experience.”
“Every single work problem that you face or I face or anyone else faces in the world — there’s a ton of people on LinkedIn who have been there, done that, solved those problems, and solved them incredibly well,” Somasundaram told Insider.
He referenced a recent collaborative article in which more than 50 teachers weighed in about helping students develop a “growth mindset.” The LinkedIn thread that inspired the article offered advice like “set high but realistic expectations,” and “provide constructive and specific feedback.” But Somasundaram said it was missing the human touch — educators’ real-life anecdotes about cultivating this mentality in their classrooms.
Enter collaborative articles, which invited the several dozen teachers to offer up ideas like exhibiting “vulnerability” in the classroom. That was a suggestion from Katherine Karayiannis, a teacher who said admitting that she’d struggled to learn math helped her connect with students when she filled in as a substitute for their regular math teacher.
LinkedIn’s Keren Baruch, director of product management (left), and Lakshman Somasundaram, director of product management (right).
Courtesy of LinkedIn
LinkedIn hasn’t rolled out the collaborative format to everyone yet, but plans to increase access to more users in the coming months, Somasundaram said. For now, it’s accessible to a select but growing group, including members named to its “Top Voices” program.
One more way LinkedIn is establishing itself as a creator-friendly platform
LinkedIn’s push into AI follows other investments to position the company as a veritable content-creation platform as much as it’s a go-to hub for job seekers.
In recent years, it’s recruited journalists who have worked at organizations like Bloomberg, Insider, and the Associated Press to comprise its LinkedIn News division. And since 2016, it’s named roughly 1,500 users to its high-profile “Top Voices” lists, designating them thought leaders in fields ranging from fashion to entrepreneurship to media. (This reporter was named a LinkedIn Top Voice: Next Gen in 2022.)
The platform in March launched 100 free educational modules to equip users for “the future of work” by teaching them about AI and machine learning. Think of these seminars like LinkedIn’s version of Master Classes on topics like generative AI, machine learning with Python, and AI accountability.
The goal, Baruch said, is “creating economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.”
“When we think about how collaborative articles fits into that,” she added, “it’s really about, how can we bring in more voices so that more of our members can learn from the wider community?”
Experts are divided about the effects of AI. Some critics have warned of detriments to the labor force, with a recent Goldman Sachs report concluding that up to 300 million jobs — especially those in white-collar roles like those in legal or administrative services — could be at risk of exposure to automation.
But a separate report from the World Economic Forum previously determined that nearly 100 million new jobs could emerge by 2025 at the intersection of “humans, machines and algorithms.”
The LinkedIn execs said they’re optimistic that the tech can open doors to future opportunities. Somasundaram said that users’ early responses to collaborative articles had been positive, leaving him encouraged.
“It really speaks to the fact that everyone’s got expertise on something,” he said. “This project is really enabling those folks to share their expertise in ways they didn’t imagine before.”
Do you work in media, technology, or artificial intelligence? Insider wants to hear from you. Contact reporter Reed Alexander via email at ralexander@insider.com, or SMS/the encrypted app Signal at (561) 247-5758.
