The future of LinkedIn could be turbocharged profiles and A.I.-driven recruitment—and its COO is here for it

LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network, is poised to be at the forefront of the way individuals showcase their accomplishments and companies attract talent, thanks to the integration of A.I.—but the question is, are machine-generated profiles and recruitment drives a good thing for potential employers and the millions of people battling it out in the job pool?

In an interview with Fortune at Cannes Lions, LinkedIn chief operating officer Daniel Shapero, shared insights into the platform’s vision for leveraging A.I. and how he sees the technology shaking up the job market.

“There are so many opportunities for LinkedIn to bring A.I. into our products,” Shapero said.

“Start with something as simple as how people describe their work accomplishments as part of their profile. People will struggle to talk about themselves if that feels awkward, so if we can show someone how a description about themselves might be compelling as part of their profile, people light up.

“It’s like, ‘Those are the words that I would never have said about myself, but that is who I am and what I’ve done.’

“Similarly, you see situations where small-business owners post a job but don’t know how to explain the responsibilities, yet this job has been posted by a million other companies in other contexts, and we can leverage all of the different ways to talk about a job so it’s not just attractive, but unbiased.”

However, according to Shapero, the true power of A.I. lies in context.

By understanding users’ backgrounds, aspirations, and connections, LinkedIn can craft personalized messages that resonate with individuals. A prime example of this is when recruiters reach out to potential candidates with tailored opportunities based on their profiles and networks.

Shapero emphasized that A.I.-driven features enable individuals new to recruiting to perform at a higher level much earlier in their careers, thus democratizing the field. “That would have maybe taken them years to learn,” he said.

Inherent pitfalls

But while A.I.-generated candidate profiles and recruitment hold significant potential for revolutionizing the job market, they also come with inherent pitfalls that need careful consideration.

One key concern is the risk of bias.

A.I. algorithms, if not properly trained and monitored, can replicate the biases present in historical data, leading to discriminatory outcomes in candidate selection.

Furthermore, A.I.-generated candidate profiles may overlook unique qualities, intangible skills, or experiences that don’t conform to predefined patterns, potentially excluding exceptional candidates.

Shapero agrees that striking a balance between leveraging the benefits of A.I. while ensuring fairness, diversity, and human judgment remains a critical challenge in harnessing the potential of these technologies for recruitment purposes. LinkedIn, he says, is already working on checks to verify skill sets.

“I think the starting point is this all needs to be rooted in a goal of equity and meritocracy and ubiquity of opportunity. So that has to be the goal,” he said.

“And you need to start by putting measures and controls in place to make sure that as you’re using A.I., you’re not introducing bias or you’re not narrowing the aperture of candidates to a subset of the people that are really capable of doing the job.

“Most companies want to hire people that are great at skills, not people that are good at talking about their skills. A.I. is a leveling of the playing field.

“There’s no question more rigor will be required on ‘how do I really know you can do the thing that you say you know,’ and so we’re investing in things like certification platforms so that we can allow people to verify their work experience.

“So we think verification becomes more important, but I’d love to live in a world where people get credit for what they can do and less about how they sound about it.”