Although the company has applied artificial intelligence to various areas such as advertising, content creation, and hiring over the past two years, it is now turning its focus to people search.
This new feature will allow users to find people using natural-language queries. For example, it will now be possible to search using complex sentences like “find me investors with FDA experience in the healthcare sector” or “someone who founded a productivity startup and is based in New York.”
Previously, LinkedIn search was more complicated; users either had to know exact job titles or use multiple filters in hopes of getting accurate results. LinkedIn’s Senior Director of Product Management, Rohan Rajiv, stated that the new AI-powered search system is designed to be the fastest way to find the person who can help you the most.
Initial tests have shown that people are using the feature to find new job opportunities, expand their businesses, or improve their career prospects.
Adding AI to search has become a general trend. As people increasingly turn to chatbots like ChatGPT and Perplexity to get answers, search engines such as Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo have also started implementing AI-assisted responses.
The new feature will initially be available to premium LinkedIn users in the United States and is planned to roll out to other regions in the coming months. Users who have access to it will see the phrase “I’m looking for…” instead of “Search” in the search bar.
However, the system is still not perfect. For example, the queries “people who founded a YC startup” and “Y Combinator” may produce different results. The company says it is continuing to improve the system to better understand such queries.
