Is the end in sight for LinkedIn?

OpenAI is muscling its way into the LinkedIn sphere with a platform promising to reshape how professionals find jobs, showcase skills and navigate the AI-driven economy

LINKEDIN HAS HAD a stranglehold on the job-board-slash-social-media market for many years now; it is unique among social media platforms in that it really has never faced a serious competitor. That could be about to change, though — OpenAI, makers of ChatGPT, have announced they are building an AI jobs platform. Could it be the LinkedIn killer?

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Dubbed the OpenAI Jobs Platform (no points for the moniker), the teased job platform will do what other attempts at AI-powered job boards have attempted to do and use AI to match candidates to jobs. “The jobs platform won’t just be a way for big companies to attract more talent. It will have a track dedicated to helping local businesses compete, and local governments find the AI talent they need to better serve their constituents,” said OpenAI’s Fidji Simo in a company blog post.

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There is a quiet arms race going on in the AI-powered recruiting space. Many interpreted OpenAI’s move to build a jobs platform as a direct challenge to LinkedIn, but it may be more about keeping up: LinkedIn, of its own accord, has been testing their AI Hiring Assistant tool with small groups of customers, and is set to roll it out more broadly as early as this month.

But it remains an open question whether this is where anyone wants hiring to go. Many agree that AI has effectively “broken” the hiring and recruitment process. Is the answer more AI? A lot of jobseekers say no: an April survey from Express Employment Professionals found that 62 per cent of candidates consider not applying to companies that use AI in their hiring process. A job board that revolves around it may not be that much of a draw for talent.

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As broken as the process might be, companies like OpenAI believe it can be fixed. “OpenAI’s entry into recruitment feels less like an experiment and more like a deliberate step to shape how jobs are filled in the AI era,” wrote HRD Magazine’s Matthew Sellers. “OpenAI’s move ensures one thing: the business of hiring is becoming as much about technology adoption as it is about human judgment. Kieran Delamont