Key Insights:

• LinkedIn now features AI-generated career advice and daily puzzles to increase user engagement and platform visits.
• The platform aims to diversify its income streams by integrating engaging content beyond job listings and professional networking.
• Analysts suggest LinkedIn must balance new features with its reputation for professionalism to sustain user trust and growth.

In a bid to stimulate user engagement and address slowing revenue growth, LinkedIn has launched new features including AI-driven career advice and daily puzzles. These initiatives aim to transform the platform from a professional networking site into a daily habit for its users.

Enhancing User Experience with AI and Games

LinkedIn, owned by Microsoft, is incorporating artificial intelligence to provide career advice and has introduced daily puzzles to attract users. This strategic move is intended to broaden the platform’s appeal beyond its traditional focus on professional development. LinkedIn’s editor-in-chief, Daniel Roth, emphasized the need for users to share and gain knowledge, as well as access valuable content on the platform regularly.

The AI feature, introduced last year, generates advice questions and solicits input from relevant specialists. These contributions are compiled into collaborative articles that offer practical advice to LinkedIn users. 

Additionally, daily games, launched in May, are designed to be quick and serve as conversation starters. Users can share their scores and view leaderboards, fostering a sense of competition and engagement among connections.

Addressing Revenue Growth Challenges

LinkedIn’s shift towards increasing user engagement comes amid concerns over slowing revenue growth. Analysts have pointed out that LinkedIn’s traditional model may no longer be sufficient to sustain its growth, necessitating a broader approach to keep users on the site and diversify its income streams beyond subscriptions.

According to data from Similarweb, visits to LinkedIn, which reached 1.8 billion last month, have increased in recent years but have seen a slowdown since early 2024. The year-on-year growth rate of site visits dropped to 5 percent in June, which is less than half the rate observed in 2021 and 2022.

Kelsey Chickering, a media analyst at Forrester, noted that LinkedIn might need to make the platform “stickier” to maintain growth. Simply being a hub for job listings and applications may not suffice to capture and retain users’ attention in an increasingly competitive social media landscape.

Boosting the Advertising Business

The recent efforts to enhance user engagement are also aimed at bolstering LinkedIn’s advertising business. With marketers’ budgets tightening, LinkedIn is keen on ensuring that its platform remains attractive for advertisers. The platform has already made significant cost-cutting measures, including two rounds of layoffs last year that affected over 5 percent of its workforce, totaling roughly 20,000 employees.

Roth explained that the introduction of daily games was part of a strategy to create brief, engaging activities that could spark interactions among users. These games record “streaks” of completed puzzles and show which connections have participated, thus encouraging further engagement.

Balancing Innovation with Professionalism

LinkedIn has also started adopting algorithmically driven feeds, similar to those used by platforms like X, TikTok, and Instagram. This algorithmic approach aims to display posts and videos from creators that users are likely to interact with, alongside content from their connections.

Despite these innovative efforts, some analysts caution that LinkedIn must carefully balance its new features with its established reputation for professionalism and trust. Rebecca McGrath, a technology analyst at Mintel, suggested that LinkedIn should focus on providing practical advice and tools that align with its core mission, rather than attempting to compete directly with entertainment-focused social media platforms.

LinkedIn reported “record engagement” with 1.5 million content interactions per minute in June. However, the platform has not disclosed specific figures for site traffic or active users, leaving some uncertainty about the effectiveness of these new initiatives in driving long-term growth.

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