How to Get More Out of AI-Assisted Search in LinkedIn Recruiter

AI is a hot topic right now — and for good reason. AI-enabled technology can help you automate repetitive tasks and free up time to prioritize more strategic work. This is more important than ever in the world of recruiting, where talent acquisition professionals need to build efficiencies into their hiring process to accomplish more with fewer resources. 

LinkedIn Recruiter’s AI-Assisted Search can help you source talent more efficiently and effectively, so you can spend your time building strong partnerships with your hiring managers to find the best possible talent for your team.

“For candidate searches that may be out of your realm of expertise, AI-Assisted Search in Recruiter is especially useful,” says Nils Jurischka, principal operations (recruiting) at alphacoders. “It does the heavy lifting for you by understanding who and what you’re looking for, which allows you to quickly and accurately find the talent you’re looking for.”

Read on for tips on writing AI-assisted search prompts in LinkedIn Recruiter. 

Writing effective AI-Assisted Search prompts

With AI-Assisted Search, you can let LinkedIn Recruiter know your hiring needs in your own words. The AI will automatically create and optimize a candidate search so you can accelerate your hiring efficiency.

Chat with AI-Assisted Search like you’re talking to a talent acquisition professional — and be specific about what you’re looking for. 

For example: 

• “Find data-savvy senior product managers in Singapore with seven years of experience.”
• “Identify entry-level designers with Figma skills who work in the Mumbai region of India.”
• “I’m searching for a content marketing specialist in Brazil who has experience with SEO and related skills.”
• “Search for software engineers who graduated in the last three years from an HBCU and are open to work for remote jobs.”
• “I’m looking for an accounting director in the San Francisco Bay Area with experience in the tech sector and a Big Four accounting background.”

AI-Assisted Search will analyze your query and populate the right search and project filters to match your criteria. For example, a prompt like “Find me marketing managers in Dublin with sales enablement experience” would create the following search filters: job title (marketing manager), location (Dublin, Ireland), and skills (sales enablement).

Fine-tune your search by asking the AI to add or remove criteria. You can get better results from a search prompt you just submitted by refining your original search rather than starting a new one. 

Here are some prompts you can use to begin or refine your search.

Surface comparable profiles: “I’m looking for candidates similar to @[name]”

When you encounter a candidate who’s almost perfect but not quite ready to change roles, the AI can find similar profiles based on key aspects of their LinkedIn presence. 

Simply write something along the lines of “Find candidates similar to @[name]” and select the model candidate from the drop-down list displayed. This will gather profile information from the model candidate to find additional candidates with similar qualifications, such as job title, years of experience, and industry.

Support internal mobility: “Find candidates at my company who would be a good fit for this role”

Investing in employee career growth can help you reduce recruitment costs, close skill gaps, and improve employee retention. But developing talent will only get you so far: You must also offer lateral moves and promotions that support your team members’ professional goals. 

Ask LinkedIn Recruiter’s AI-Assisted Search to help you find candidates at your company who would be a good fit for your open role so you can support internal mobility.

Uncover talent who may be ready to change jobs: “Find candidates who have been in their current position for more than two years”

Candidates who have been in their current position for a while may be more interested in exploring new opportunities. Using the “years in current position” or “years in current company” filters will help you quickly identify these candidates.

Identify candidates who are connected to your team members: “Show me candidates who know people at my company”

Candidates are 46% more likely to accept your InMail if they’re already connected to someone at your company. As an added bonus, your team members can help you gauge a candidate’s qualifications and culture fit, as well as sell candidates on your opportunity.

The company connections filter can help you proactively surface candidates in your team’s network, improving both response rates and your quality of hire.

Reconnect with past candidates: “Find candidates I’ve messaged in the past”

You don’t have to start every job search from scratch, particularly if you’ve found qualified candidates for similar positions in the past. Ask the AI to add a filter for candidates you’ve already messaged. 

Similarly, you can filter for candidates you have not messaged in the past. This can be useful if you’re reopening a search and have already reached out to your Silver Medalists.

Source active talent: “Find candidates who are recently open to work” 

Candidates who have signaled they are “Open to Work” on their LinkedIn profile are about 35% more likely to respond than others. Being among the first to reach out to them can increase your chances of winning them for your team.

Narrow or broaden your talent pool: “Help me expand my search” and “Help me refine my search”

As a best practice, aim for about 200 candidates in your LinkedIn Recruiter talent pool for most roles. You can ask the AI to expand or refine your search so you can easily identify the most qualified talent.

Supercharge your search with LinkedIn Recruiter and Talent Insights

Customers who have LinkedIn Talent Insights in addition to LinkedIn Recruiter have access to real-time data on talent pools and companies around the world. These insights can help you refine and focus your search to source talent more effectively.

Here are some ways you can access this data within AI-Assisted Search.

Fine-tune required skills: “What are the top skills for [role] at my company?”

The most common skills for the current team members in your open role can be indicative of what it would take to be successful in the role. Ask the AI to show you the most common skills for this role at your company and add those skills to your filters. Searching for skills rather than job titles can yield different results, which may be necessary to find talent for emerging or hard-to-fill roles. This information can also be used to assess what skills your organization should be investing in developing internally. 

See competitive talent data: “Show me only candidates who work at companies my organization hires from”

LinkedIn Talent Insights shows you which companies your team is winning talent from — and which companies you’re losing talent to. Filtering by your talent competitors in LinkedIn Recruiter’s AI-Assisted Search, powered by Talent Insights, can help you focus on candidates with backgrounds similar to your current team members. 

You can also ask your team members why they were interested in your opportunity and use that information to craft more appealing InMails. For example, if several team members you recruited from a competitor say that your organization has better opportunities for advancement, you can mention career pathing and development initiatives in your InMails.

Expand your talent pool: “What are the top titles for [role] at my company?”

Candidates with similar skill sets and responsibilities might have different job titles. You can ask the AI to see the top job titles at your company and add them to your filters to expand your search. 

Final thoughts: AI-Assisted Search makes sourcing faster, more intuitive, and incredibly effective

Talent acquisition professionals are busy and need technology that enables them to work more efficiently and effectively. 

Rachel Gold, a senior recruiter at SAP, says: “I’ve been doing candidate searches one way for so many years that there’s a certain sense of relief in being able to just use my own words and say, ‘Hey, I need to find XYZ’ using Linkedin Recruiter.”

AI-Assisted Search is another tool in your toolbelt to help you reduce routine tasks so you can concentrate on fostering meaningful connections with your most qualified candidates.