LinkedIn is rolling out AI-driven solutions to improve the job search process. As a virtual career advisor, a chatbot provides advice on job prospects, skill development, and corporate details. These resources are designed to allay typical worries among job searchers and increase self-assurance in seizing opportunities.
According to Quartz, LinkedIn’s Chief Product Officer, Tomer Cohen, highlights that the goal of these AI solutions is to offer trust in addition to information. They simplify the job search process by bridging the gap between job searchers and job openings.
However, only Premium LinkedIn members have access to the job search feature. Being exclusive to premium subscribers, the beta test enables users to answer questions like “Am I a good fit for this job?” to initiate the chatbot. In response, the job seeker coach gives the user advice on whether or not to apply, pointing out any holes in their resume that could hinder their application or offering further details on how they could be qualified for the position.
In addition, LinkedIn recently revealed that 668 roles in the engineering, product, talent, and finance areas would be affected by another round of layoffs. These layoffs coincide with LinkedIn’s struggling eight consecutive quarters of weak revenue growth year over year.
According to a press statement from the company’s chief product officer, Tomer Cohen, LinkedIn has one billion members and receives over 140 job applications per second. This is why the AI-powered job seeker coach on the platform is being introduced. He reaffirmed that premium users would benefit from free usage of the chatbot, claiming that they will receive more job applications and be able to leverage AI-powered message recommendations to attract recruiters and hiring managers.
Microsoft, the parent company of LinkedIn, announced a meager 5% gain in revenue for the second quarter, despite the platform seeing consistent growth in membership over the previous two years. Microsoft will focus on important initiatives and operational enhancements to increase revenue. The LinkedIn layoffs are in line with the company’s FY 24 budget.
The 10,000 job losses that Microsoft announced in January and July are in addition to the layoffs at LinkedIn, which account for 3% of the company’s workforce. Since the company’s total revenue growth has slowed down recently, CEO Satya Nadella has been under pressure to prioritize revenue growth and cut costs across the board.
According to Erran Berger, vice president of product engineering at LinkedIn, “we had to build a lot of stuff on our end to work around that and to make this a snappy experience,” he said on Wednesday to CNBC. Sometimes it’s almost like search when you’re having these verbal experiences; you expect it to happen instantly. Therefore, in order to make that feasible, we had to establish actual platform capabilities.
AI-powered hiring tools have already come under fire for discriminating against minority and female candidates. When it became apparent that the software discriminated against female applicants by identifying the gender of resumes, Amazon decided to discontinue their AI-powered recruitment engine in 2018. Similarly, a 2019 Harvard Business Review investigation discovered that AI hiring systems exhibited bias towards Black individuals when it came to job board recommendations.