AI and the modern economy are already challenging how we perceive the labour market. Can Linkedin survive it, asks Paul Armstrong

AI is busy dismantling the professional network model and forcing companies to rethink how they measure capability, find talent and more.

Linkedin still behaves as if work is stable and identity can be summarised in a neat feed of credentials. Microsoft’s Q4 FY25 results show Linkedin revenue up roughly nine per cent year on year, reaching more than 1.2bn members worldwide. Scale masks stagnation. The network still sells the illusion of permanence in a labour market now moving at the speed of automation.

Artificial intelligence isn’t only changing who gets hired; it’s redefining what hiring means. Machines can already filter, assess and perform faster than any recruiter. The social graph of professionals is becoming irrelevant in an economy where performance is verified continuously rather than endorsed socially.

Linkedin has not died but it feels fossilised. The platform’s feed has become a slopification tsunami: endless synthetic authenticity and algorithmic filler. Every post looks the same because the system rewards engagement over insight. Professional virtue signalling has, or perhaps more importantly feels like it has, replaced........

© City A.M.