Sara Fischer: LinkedIn tests AI assistant for Premium members

This piece is by WWSG exclusive thought leader, Sara Fischer.

LinkedIn is testing an AI assistant for Premium members, Axios has learned. The product leverages Microsoft’s AI technology to prompt users to chat with an AI assistant to learn more about a particular company or topic.

Why it matters: It’s the job site’s first major AI product targeted broadly to consumers instead of enterprise customers, like recruiters.

• Other social networks, such as Snapchat and Meta’s Instagram, debuted AI-powered assistant features last year.

Catch up quick: LinkedIn rolled out a set of AI-driven tools for recruiters and job seekers last year, including AI-assisted candidate discovery and an AI-powered coaching feature.

• It teased the consumer-facing AI assistant last year, but it began rolling out the test broadly to more Premium LinkedIn users in recent weeks.
• LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft, which backs ChatGPT parent OpenAI.

State of play: The new LinkedIn AI assistant prompts readers to learn more about a particular company or topic when it appears in a post in the LinkedIn feed.

• The information is delivered through a mix of insights posted publicly by LinkedIn’s user base of over 1 billion globally, as well as results from Microsoft’s search engine Bing.
• A company spokesperson called the feed prompts “knowledge insights.” The insights will appear on most LinkedIn feed content, including long articles, videos and posts.

Zoom in: When a user clicks a prompt, they are guided to a chat box where they can ask LinkedIn’s AI assistant for more information.

• The chat box states at the top of the conversation with the user: “This AI feature is in beta and may make mistakes. Microsoft privacy policy may apply to your input.”

• Responses to user chat queries are labeled as being “Powered by Bing,” Microsoft’s search engine.
• The spokesperson noted that the chat responses are personalized to users based on their skills and experience. They noted that the company has so far seen strong results from the test.

The big picture: The new feature is part of a broader array of AI-driven features that LinkedIn is testing and plans to reveal more about publicly in the coming days.

• The tech giant hopes the new AI-powered tools will help connect its user base to more content and insights that can help accelerate their careers.