We find ourselves in the most advanced era of AI that humanity has ever witnessed. The world, particularly the workplace, is undergoing a transformation at a speed we couldn't have foreseen just a decade ago. Now, it is projected that job requirements will undergo a substantial 65% transformation by 2030, propelled by the swift advancements in AI.

According to LinkedIn's latest report, significant shifts are already in progress. In India, job listings referencing AI or Generative AI have more than doubled (2.5x) in the past two years. Moreover, job postings related to AI or Gen AI have experienced a 2.1x increase in applications in India over the same period, outpacing the growth of job listings that do not mention AI. 

LinkedIn's research also highlighted that 98% of professionals in India are excited about integrating AI into their work. Many are eager to leverage AI for career advice (75%) and handling challenging work situations (78%).

To prepare their workforce for the imminent changes, business leaders are turning to HR and recruitment teams to guide the transition. 92% of talent professionals in India have noted that their role has evolved to be more strategic, particularly in talent acquisition, over the past year. 

AI is expected to play a pivotal role, lightening the workload so HR teams can dedicate more time to strategic tasks. Globally, 80% of HR professionals are of the opinion that AI will serve as a tool to assist them in the coming five years. This technological support will enable them to concentrate on the strategic and human aspects of their roles, including enhancing relationships with candidates and colleagues, and engaging in creative and strategic endeavours (39%).

“AI is bringing in a new era of work, reshaping everything from our workplaces and teams to the very nature of job-seeking and hiring. HR professionals are at the helm of this transformation, with a clear mandate: skills will be the cornerstone of an AI-powered work environment. Business leaders should seize this moment to consider the skills their teams need both now and in the future. And with AI as a tool, HR professionals can focus on simplifying routine tasks, diving deeper into valuable, people-centric responsibilities, and ensuring their businesses are equipped with the right talent to prosper,” said Ruchee Anand, Senior Director, Talent and Learning Solution at LinkedIn India. 

To assist organisations in adapting to the evolving work landscape, LinkedIn recently initiated a trial of generative AI tools within Recruiter and Learning Hub, starting with a select group of customers. The objective is to extend these tools to all users gradually over the course of the year. 

Here's a breakdown of the key initiatives:

Recruiter 2024: LinkedIn's new AI-driven recruitment experience, Recruiter 2024, streamlines and simplifies the hiring process. By employing natural language search prompts like "I want to hire a senior growth marketing leader," hirers can leverage LinkedIn's AI models and vast professional and company insights to infer the ideal candidate profiles. This approach yields higher-quality candidate recommendations drawn from a significantly broader candidate pool, enabling talent leaders to dedicate more time to strategic, people-centric endeavours.

LinkedIn Learning's AI-powered Coaching: LinkedIn is piloting real-time advice within two highly sought-after skills applicable across various job domains: leadership and management. Learners can pose specific questions such as, "How can I delegate tasks and responsibilities effectively?" Instead of offering a one-size-fits-all response, the AI system will engage in a dialogue, seeking to understand the learner's unique situation and experiences through clarifying questions. Based on this understanding and leveraging insights from hundreds of hours of content by LinkedIn Learning’s expert instructors, it will provide tailored advice, examples, and feedback. Additionally, LinkedIn Learning has made popular AI courses available for free until December 15, 2023, for those looking to expand their knowledge in this domain.

Commenting on the same, Jude James, Vice President of Talent Acquisition at UST said, “In a world revolutionised by generative AI, talent acquisition is no longer merely about sourcing and recruiting the right talent. It's also about leveraging the power of advanced AI algorithms to analyse, predict, and optimise each aspect of the hiring life cycle. Additionally, the possibility of hyper-personalization of candidate reach-out, facilitated by generative AI, ensures each candidate interaction is unique, meaningful, and reflective of the organisation's commitment to recognizing and nurturing each applicant's unique potential. This synergy of human expertise and AI capabilities will help organisations confidently navigate the complexities of the talent acquisition landscape, helping them to identify, attract, and hire top-tier talent.”

These new tools build upon LinkedIn's prior introduction of AI-powered messages and job descriptions in May 2023. These earlier advancements harnessed generative AI to personalise InMail messages on a large scale, significantly boosting candidate engagement and facilitating expedited discovery of qualified candidates for companies.