Is OpenAI Jobs Platform Really a LinkedIn Killer?
Or is it building something entirely different?
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Happy Wedensday,
Writing this from the floor at HR Tech in Las Vegas. I’ve forgotten how big this conference is. There’s SO many people everywhere and the talk of the town is unsurprisingly AI. When I last attended the conference two years ago, there was talks about AI but now EVERYONE is talking about AI.
I’ll devote the Friday update soley to learnings and such from the conference with updated cool tools that I’ve seen and such. So stay tuned for that.
But now, todays piece. Let’s get to it.
On September 4, OpenAI announced something that immediately triggered headlines and ripple waves in the HR / Recruiting community: the OpenAI Jobs Platform.
It hasn't been released yet, hence it has sparked an outcry of speculation and reactions. Somewhat predictable reactions as well.
“This is the LinkedIn killer.” “We’ll all upload our CVs to OpenAI now.” “Recruiting will never be the same.”
That’s the easy and predictable interpretation. And it misses what I think is the real story here. Because why would they want to build a CV-matching machine? Makes no sense.
I think Anita Lettink’s take is semi-spot on, and she articulated partly what I think is happening. But her main point is spot-on. This is not mainly about replacing LinkedIn.
It’s about data, positioning, and creating an entirely new kind of labor market infrastructure.
What is OpenAI really doing?
I think that the Jobs Platform will not be designed to be “LinkedIn with AI sprinkled on top.” Instead, I hypothesize that this is a move to sit between two powerful streams of information:
Company needs. OpenAI can “see” what problems companies are trying to solve, what skills they lack, and where their bottlenecks are.
Individual capabilities. Through ChatGPT, they already see how millions of people work, what they ask, where they struggle, and which skills they build over time.
If they solve this, I think this would be a first; no traditional job board has ever had access to this kind of live, behavioral data.
Up until last week, this was my own vague hypothesis. I was about to write about it, but didn’t because it felt a bit too speculative.
I mean, they should be able to extract all of this information, at least at an aggregated level. But are they really? And isn’t it a bit like “Big Brother OpenAI is watching?”
Turns out he is (once again on an aggregated level).
Two days ago, OpenAI, in collaboration with NBER, they released a working paper that they published alongside researchers from MIT.
It shows how people actually use ChatGPT.
Sidnote here, but the majority of activity is:
Practical problem-solving (“How do I fix this formula in Excel?”)
Learning new skills (“Teach me SQL basics.”)
Coaching and guidance (“How should I handle this conversation with my team?”)
The whole report is worth a read (or listen to it as I did).
This matters because it shows two things:
ChatGPT is already a skills engine. It’s where people go to close gaps in real time, not just to generate text.
OpenAI has visibility into actual capability-building. Not what people say they can do, but what they’re actively trying to learn and improve.
Imagine what this could be, instead of relying on someone saying that they are really good at using Excel, we could (potentially) be able to see that someone has consistently solved spreadsheet problems over time or, conversely, that they’ve asked the same beginner-level question ten times.
That’s a much richer signal of competence. And it’s one LinkedIn, for all its endorsements and badges, has never been able to capture. Real skill data, not just résumé claims.
A task matcher, not a job board
So what will the Jobs Platform be? No one really knows, of course, but here’s my guess. (And this might be 100% wrong, let’s circle back here in a year…it’s set to launch mid-2026)
I don’t think it’s a job board at all. I think it will be a matching engine.
Think less “LinkedIn” and more “Fiverr + AI.”
OpenAI knows the problems companies face (via integrations and usage).
OpenAI knows the skills individuals actually have (via patterns of questions and tasks).
Matching those two creates a market where jobs might find you before a job ad even exists.
That’s fundamentally different from uploading a CV and waiting for recruiters to find you.
A Trojan Horse or just a business opportunity?
Anita calls it a trojan horse, a way for OpenAI to quietly capture the world’s job market data and become the unavoidable middleman.
She might be right. There is something to this.
But after listening to OpenAI’s Chief Economist Ronnie Chatterji and Editorial Director Mark Murray, I’m not entirely convinced of the “trojan horse” narrative.
They spoke more about skills certification and the future of capability-building than about the Jobs Platform itself. The real emphasis was on matching skills to opportunities in a way today’s labor market simply can’t.
So yes, it’s about data. But it’s also about rethinking the infrastructure of how skills meet work.
If the OpenAI Jobs Platform succeeds, here’s what it could mean:
Recruitment flips. Instead of broadcasting jobs and filtering applicants, AI matches people to problems automatically.
CVs matter less. What you’ve demonstrated in your work and learning becomes the real signal.
Upskilling is visible. Continuous learning can be tracked through your actual use of AI tools, not just training certificates.
Upskilling is instant and proactive. This is partly already happening as training happens when it’s needed.
Compliance is key. In Europe, the EU AI Act will decide what’s even legal here. (We might miss out…again.)
And for LinkedIn? I doubt it dies; they are a part of Microsoft, and if OpenAI shows the way, Microsoft is positioned to follow this as well (they certainly have the data).
We’ve heard “LinkedIn killers” before. But this isn’t about killing LinkedIn. This is about building something different.
I think that the OpenAI Jobs Platform is not another job board. It’s an attempt to reshape how supply and demand in the labor market connect.
It’s not about profiles and ads. It’s about problems and skills.
And if OpenAI pulls it off, it could change recruiting, training, and career development more deeply than LinkedIn ever did.