LinkedIn Launches AI-Powered People Search for Premium Users

LinkedIn adds AI-powered search to help users find people | TechCrunch

For the last two years, LinkedIn has tried to infuse AI into different parts of its platforms, including ad copies, content creation, personalized digests, hiring assistance, job hunting advice, and learning. The company is now finally adding AI to one of the most used parts of the site: search. Earlier this year, the company released a job search tool for members in the U.S., allowing them to search for jobs using natural language queries. Now, the company is extending the feature to people search. Users can use queries like "Find me investors in the healthcare sector with FDA experience," people who "co-founded a productivity company and are based in NYC," or "Who in my network can help me understand wireless networks." Until now, LinkedIn's search has been more complicated. You can type in a few words to find the right people or rely on many different LinkedIn filters in the hope of getting the right results. Plus, you also have to think about what kinds of words you might want to use to get the best out of the search system. "With lexical search, you have to know the exact title of the person, or you need to wrestle with filters to find the right person, maybe. And if you didn't know the right combination, the right person remained undiscovered. The new AI-powered people search is designed to be the fastest path to the person who can help you the most," Rohan Rajiv, senior director of product management at LinkedIn, told TechCrunch over a call. The company said in its early testing, it has seen people use this to find others who can help them with their next job opportunity, expand their business, or boost their career prospects. Search has been one area where all internet platforms have been rushing to add AI. Seeing people gravitate towards chatbots like ChatGPT and Perplexity for answers, incumbent search engines like Google, Bing, Brave, and DuckDuckGo have added AI-powered answers. There are plenty of startups working on AI-powered people search as well. Reddit has also leaned heavily into AI-powered search and locked down its platform's data, asking other companies to sign a licensing agreement for AI training and usage. LinkedIn is one of the most used sites in AI demos for AI agents, browsers, and assistants. However, the Microsoft-owned company has not put restrictions on its data just yet. "I think we are still early in this age of browsers and how they are working on behalf of people. I think over time, we will have a more sturdy policy [around browsers]," Rajiv said. "On a broader note, I have seen a lot of demos that try to reason over a person's LinkedIn network. This is sort of an area where I think it is going to be hard to find a substitute for the real thing because this is the worst the search has ever been." LinkedIn is rolling out AI-powered people search to premium users in the U.S. with plans to expand it to other geographies in the coming months. People who will have access to this feature will see "I'm looking for..." in the search bar instead of "Search." The search is not perfect. You will get different results when you use a query like "people who co-founded a YC startup" as compared to using "Y Combinator" in the query. Also, when you search for "people who co-founded a voice AI startup," some folks who have a LinkedIn top voice badge show up. The company said it is working on improving the way the search tool understands the query.

LinkedIn is making it easier to search for people with AI

LinkedIn is launching an AI-powered search feature that allows you to find people by describing who you're looking for. Now, instead of searching for an exact name, job title, or company, you can enter a more descriptive search, such as "Northwestern alumni who work in entertainment marketing," or even pose a question, like "Who can help me understand the US work visa system?" From there, LinkedIn will use AI to surface the best matches for your query. LinkedIn senior director of product management Rohan Rajiv tells The Verge that the platform will rank results based on the connections you might have with someone, as well as their relevance to your search. LinkedIn launched an AI-enhanced job search in May, allowing people to look for job openings by describing their ideal career. Extending AI to people search should make it a lot easier to find someone who might be able to help you with a particular task, or if you're looking for a potential connection in a field you're interested in. LinkedIn is rolling out AI-powered people search to Premium users in the US starting today, but the platform plans on bringing it to all users soon.

LinkedIn just got an AI upgrade -- here's what's new

LinkedIn started its AI push last year by making it possible to search for jobs using generative AI. This removed the old system and allowed users to search for very specific roles. Now, the social network for professionals has adapted its AI job search feature to let users search for people in the same way. For example, using the generative AI search bar, you could ask: "find me journalists in New York specializing in the NFL" or people "who work for a health charity who also do public speaking". This is a big jump for LinkedIn, which, in the past, has had quite a limited search function. Users could search for specific names, companies, or input job roles, but it could still be challenging to track people down. Like a lot of other tech companies, LinkedIn is pouring its efforts into AI-powered search. Big search engines and social media companies are competing on similar fronts, aiming to improve their search capabilities through support from AI. For now, this feature will be coming to users in the U.S. first, with plans to expand to other regions in the next couple of months. It is also only available to premium users currently, requiring a subscription to use it. As LinkedIn expands its search tool, its capabilities keep increasing. Before, searches were rather limited. Now, it operates in a similar way to tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity. If you are eligible to use the feature, you'll see "I'm looking for..." in the search box. Simply type in an explanation of what you are looking to find. This could be a specific person, or it could be a job. These can be as niche or general as you like. For example, you could search: "Jobs in the medical field that are heavily research-focused but remote with the option to go into an office". This allows you to narrow down your search to exact criteria. Like all other AI tools, it isn't perfect and will still fail to return results sometimes, or in a lot of cases, provide jobs or people who don't properly match your description. LinkedIn has said that it is working on improving the functionality of these tools, working to change the way it understands your queries for the better.

LinkedIn is making it easier to search for people with AI

LinkedIn is adding even more AI tools to the platform in order to help users find suitable matches in its search box. With the change, LinkedIn users will be able to search terms such as, "investors in the healthcare sector with FDA experience" or, "who in my network can help me understand wireless networks." Before, searches on LinkedIn required users to input the exact job titles or use complex filtering - which means many matches simply went amiss. Early testing already shows users trying out AI to find job leads, business opportunities and career support, and all in all, the change doesn't come as that much of a surprise. Search features on other websites, including internet behemoth Google, already use AI to improve results, so LinkedIn would've been missing out if it hadn't added AI sooner or later. But, there is a catch. AI people searching is rolling out to Premium users in the US first, with a global expansion planned for "the coming months." "If you didn't know the right combination, the right person remained undiscovered," Product Management Senior Director Rohan Rajiv explained to TechCrunch. "The new AI-powered people search is designed to be the fastest path to the person who can help you the most." The feature works by surfacing results ordered based on connections and relevance to the search query, in an effort to show the most valuable people first. "Now, instead of static results, LinkedIn surfaces people with the right expertise, at the right time, turning connections into actionable opportunities," LinkedIn wrote in a blog post.

LinkedIn turns search into a targeted AI chat to grow your network

Type what you're trying to do, from launching a startup to switching careers, and LinkedIn's new Premium-only search will find people who've already done it. What's happened? LinkedIn is rolling out an AI-powered people search feature for Premium members in the US. Instead of typing job titles and company names, subscribers can describe the kind of person they want to find in plain language. * LinkedIn says members can type prompts like "someone who's grown a small business" or "an expert in digital marketing" instead of juggling filters. * The AI parses those conversational queries against LinkedIn's professional data to surface people whose skills and experience match the goal. * For now, the feature is limited to Premium members in the US, with LinkedIn planning to expand access in the coming months. This is important because: LinkedIn is turning one of its core tools into a paid AI upgrade. That gives Premium subscribers a smarter way to find useful contacts and pushes more of LinkedIn's advanced features behind a subscription. * Paying members get an edge when they are prospecting, recruiting, or trying to reach a specific kind of expert. * Plain language search helps when you are exploring a new industry and do not know the right titles or keywords. * LinkedIn says it wants to surface "the right expertise, at the right time" for big moments like launching a business or planning a career move. * The AI move by LinkedIn might be an industry response to anyone who wants to move into their space. Recommended Videos Why should I care? If you lean on LinkedIn for help, advice, or talent, this changes how you start that search. Instead of guessing other people's job titles, you can describe the outcome you want and look for people who have already done it. * You can search by results, like "someone who's scaled a small team" or "someone who's taken a side project full time." * If you're a recruiter, you might not need to rely on the best hiring apps out now. Okay, so what's next? Right now this AI people search is a Premium perk in the US, but LinkedIn does not plan to keep it that narrow. As it rolls out more widely, it is likely to reset what "searching on LinkedIn" looks like. * LinkedIn plans to widen access in the coming months, so members outside the US, and possibly on other tiers, can expect conversational search to show up in their workflows.