As LinkedIn rolls out artificial intelligence products, Dan Shapero, the chief operations officer, has also been trying out AI tools.
“My advice to business leaders is to get comfortable with the technology, to use it,” he told Business Insider. “It is almost certain that you’re going to be asked by your CEO or your board, what’s your strategy for embracing AI in your area?”
He said the leaders who have good answers to those questions will be successful in the next decade.
Top tech leaders, including Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and OpenAI’s Sam Altman, have said they use AI at work daily. Some, including e-commerce platform Shopify’s CEO Tobe Lütke, have even mandated the use of the technology at their companies.
Shapero shared three ways he has been using AI to become more efficient in his day-to-day — and the aspects of his job he still prefers to do manually:
1. You can’t be everywhere
One way Shapero said he uses AI is to summarize notes for meetings he misses.
“There are a lot of meetings that I think would’ve been valuable to attend, but sometimes I can’t be everywhere,” he said.
Shapero said he likes using Copilot for this because it is built into Teams, which the Microsoft-owned company uses. “I’ll often use Copilot to summarize meeting outcomes to make sure that I can stay on top of the business.”
2. Unfamiliar topics
Shapero also said he uses AI to learn about topics he is not well versed in.
“Oftentimes, I’ll have to learn about new technologies, new legislation, and different industry trends,” the COO said. “I find that having a conversation with ChatGPT can be very helpful in me learning deeply about a topic that I’m not familiar with.”
3. Preparing for meetings
Shapero said he also likes using AI to cut down the time it takes for meeting prep. He said he uses LinkedIn’s Account IQ product, which is geared toward sales roles.
“It takes all the news that’s been going on around a company, all of the things they’ve shared on LinkedIn, their trends on who they’re hiring, and it summarizes it into a one-page dossier that I can then read to be prepared for my discussion,” he said.
Shapero said he also uses chatbots for advice on how to write and present ideas more succinctly. There’s one big exception: He said he doesn’t need LinkedIn’s AI summary feature for writing his own profile, since he has lots of practice writing in first person.
Human parts of the job
Still, Shapero said there are parts of his job he cannot imagine AI doing, such as the later stages of recruiting.
He said that once AI helps him find and shortlist candidates, he thinks about questions like “How do I really assess whether they’re a good fit for the job?” and “How do I have a conversation with them to convince them that we’re a good match for them?”
He also said AI can’t do leadership functions.
“While AI has shown that it can synthesize information, I’m not sure that it’s shown that it can inspire a team or that it can connect with people at a deeper level,” he said.
He said chatbots and AI tools also struggle with a lack of data, which makes human decisions more important.
“Ultimately it has to be you at the center, making the decision and seeing the path forward.”
