Job seekers can list skills in LinkedIn profiles, but verifying whether they actually have them typically falls to recruiters.
But with more and more employers now seeking AI fluency in candidates, LinkedIn is taking steps to prove that job candidates really have they skills they claim.
The Verified AI Skills program unveiled in January involves LinkedIn partnering with AI tool providers to automatically validate and display a user’s proficiency directly in their certification section. The initial partners include Lovable, Replit, Relay.app, and Descript, which will track AI proficiency of candidates using their tools to create AI apps.
“GitHub, Gamma, and Zapier are coming in a couple of months,” said Pat Whelan, group product manager at LinkedIn, adding that the company is betting certification of AI skills directly from companies is more trustworthy than when users manually self-report their skills.
“Verifications are definitely a big part of our strategy…,” Whelan said. “We’re starting with AI skills because they’re very in demand in the labor market.”
Job listings referencing AI skills are on the rise. In January, the number of postings for “AI Engineers” totaled 8,765, up 1,353, according to data from industry organization CompTIA.
It’s hard for job seekers to stand out in the noisy market — and it’s hard for hiring managers to find highly qualified candidates. “This is an opportunity for people to say, ‘I’m using these tools every day, I’m getting better at them,’” Whelan said.
The initial partnerships are with app builders, which allows candidates to show they are experimenting and building apps. IT industry experts said job seekers who can use and build with AI tools will always have a leg up on their less-skilled colleagues.
If a candidate reaches the interview stage of a job hunt, being able to discuss what they tried, what they learned, and what failed proves curiosity and real experience, said Matthew Blackford, vice president of engineering at RWS.
“Strong candidates can talk honestly about something they tried, what did not work, and what they learned,” he said, adding “these skills apply equally to engineers, product managers, and technology leaders.”
AI-related roles are also growing, said Bekir Atahan, vice president at Experis. “Those postings increased more than 50% in January, and software developer positions that include AI skills grew at an even faster pace,” Atahan said.
Enterprise AI projects are moving from exploration and proofs of concept to more practical real-world implementation — and that is creating steady demand for multidisciplinary technologists, Atahan said.
How it works at Lovable
LinkedIn partner Lovable can validate a candidate’s app-building ability in a user profile. First, users can go to a Lovable workspace where the proficiency is visible in Account Settings.
Users can press a button saying “connect to LinkedIn,” which asks for authentication of the LinkedIn credentials through the LinkedIn API. The resulting score is then listed on a person’s LinkedIn profile.
“You can always disconnect it from your Lovable so you have full control of whether it’s going to be visible or whether it’s not going to be visible.” said Elena Verna, head of growth at Lovable.
Lovable currently has more than 135,000 projects built per day, with more than 30 million software apps built so far. Lovable has more than 8 million visitors a day.
“This is not so much for us. This is for people to be able to land better opportunities and for them to expand their horizons as job markets are changing so rapidly,” Verna said.
A new twist for job seekers
Job holders used to share their GitHub portfolio to showcase what code they’ve written. In the same vein, the direct validation of AI skills in LinkedIn profiles can be valuable for job seekers.
“If they have built an app or a repository where they can showcase all their apps, and a tool like LinkedIn is able to demonstrate that — that should be valuable,” said Deepak Seth, director analyst at Gartner.
An employer might be more interested in skills beyond just a job seeker’s ability to create an app, which itself is a low bar to cross. That’s because AI tools are becoming easier to use.
Companies are more interested in hiring AI-fluent candidates that can solve business problems. “Customer churn is a big problem for us, and this guy built an app which helps minimize customer churn. That would be a bigger thing than, ‘This guy built an app,’” Seth said.
Some features that were difficult or impossible three months ago are now within reach. Verna said Lovable’s certification scoring will evolve alongside the product to reflect growing complexity.
“We are going to start adding additional levels of certification of complexity and depth of use and feature breadth… .We plan to [continually] evolve the score,” Verna said.
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