Job seekers are scrambling to add new AI skills to their LinkedIn profiles as postings mentioning ChatGPT surge

• The number of job postings mentioning ChatGPT has surged in recent months.
• LinkedIn job seekers are adding AI skills to their profiles at a rapid rate.
• Some AI skills are highly technical, but people skills still have a lot of value.

Generative AI is taking the world by storm, so it's probably time to update your résumé. 

The number of job postings mentioning GPT or ChatGPT on LinkedIn has grown 21-fold since the chatbot was released last November, according to a new company report on AI in the workforce that looked at global English-language jobs. Postings for AI engineers, in particular, more than doubled between April and June, making it the third-fastest-growing job on the platform.

"As companies are always looking for ways to increase productivity and drive revenue, it makes sense that more companies would be looking for people who know how to use these emerging AI tools," Karin Kimbrough, LinkedIn's chief economist, told Insider. 

Some of these jobs, such as an AI-focused product-manager role at Netflix paying $900,000 a year, come with compensation well into the six figures — so it shouldn't be surprising that job seekers are starting to take note. 

On Indeed, the number of generative-AI job postings rose by about 50% from July 2022 to July 2023, company data provided to Insider said. But the number of generative-AI job searches rose way more — by 12,300% over the same period. Indeed noted that both of these figures had grown from close to zero.

And LinkedIn users are updating their profiles to best position themselves for these roles. Since January, the number of generative-AI keywords like "ChatGPT" or "prompt engineering" on LinkedIn members' profiles across the globe has risen an average of 75% month over month, the report said. As of June, the number of members with at least one AI skill was nine times larger than it was in 2016, based on data from 25 countries. 

These skills often require technical training or experience in computer science and statistics, said Kimbrough. However, the platform operates under an honor system where members self-report their skills. The five fastest-growing AI-related skills on members' profiles are question answering (up 332% year over year), classification (up by 43%), recommender systems (up by 40%), computer vision (up by 32%), and natural language processing (up by 19%), per the report. 

Some professionals have likely acquired these skills in recent months, but others may have had them for years — and are just now adding them to their profiles in response to the surge in AI hype. And of course, some people could be adding skills they don't actually have. 

While US job openings overall remain significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels, they've come down a bit on LinkedIn in recent months, Kimbrough said, which could be another reason job seekers are exploring the emerging AI industry. 

"There's currently just one open job for every two applicants looking on LinkedIn, and professionals may be looking to capitalize on the growing opportunities around AI," she said. 

'People skills are still far more important to executives and company leadership'

If you don't have time to become an AI expert, Kimbrough has two pieces of good news. First, even AI novices can use technologies like ChatGPT to make themselves more productive at their current and future jobs. 

"Most people can improve their AI literacy and become familiar with how AI generally works and how to use it to complement what they want to do," she said.

Second, while companies may be seeking more people with AI skills, one thing hasn't changed. 

"The truth is that people skills are still far more important to executives and company leadership," Kimbrough said. 

In June, 92% of US executives agreed that people skills are "more important than ever," according to a LinkedIn survey of 5,000 members at the VP level or above. Since November, the fastest-growing in-demand skills of US employers on the platform are flexibility (up by 158%), professional ethics (up by 120%), social perceptiveness (up by 118%), and self-management (up by 83%) — none of which are skills AI tools excel at. 

"People skills, such as management, communication, customer service, leadership, and teamwork, are increasingly in-demand in the workplace right now because they can be gained from life experiences and are transferable to every industry," Kimbrough said.

She thinks these skills will continue to be valued in the years to come.

"With a rise in remote and hybrid work, and now AI, the need for human connection and people skills have become more important than ever as companies are looking for talent that can step up and manage teams — no matter their environment."