Originally, the LinkedIn platform functioned effectively as what it was created to be — a conventional professional network. Its value was primarily social and transactional: resumes, connections, job postings, recruiters, and messaging. Even after its acquisition in 2016, Microsoft continued to frame it as an independent entity.
The shift happened gradually. As Microsoft expanded with MS 365, MS Dynamics, and GitHub, LinkedIn’s content became more valuable to them as a data resource than as a social service for its members. LinkedIn’s constantly updated professional data helps Microsoft understand who works where, how companies are connected, and which leads and opportunities might matter to their teams. Patterns in workforce skills and hiring practices turn user profiles into business insights for Microsoft.
The user-facing content layer gradually became less important than the data being generated behind it. The platform is still active, with close to a billion users, but likes, posts, and AI-generated entries don’t necessarily provide value to LinkedIn members. They mainly function to keep profiles active and up to date. The real value is in the structured data behind the platform, which feeds Microsoft’s enterprise tools. Fair enough, they own it.
But this matters for real people and their career planning because it challenges the assumption that active participation on LinkedIn is required to advance a career. While the platform still positions itself as a hub for opportunity, its importance to individual career development is overstated. Understanding what LinkedIn is actually optimized for helps explain why stepping back from it doesn’t necessarily mean falling behind.
For those who want to highlight their skills and contributions in today’s challenging employment environment, there are far more effective approaches. Verifiable artifacts such as GitHub repositories, issue histories, or long-term projects, can produce stronger signals than social engagement. LinkedIn activity is surface-level at best - you can do better. With the emergence of new concepts in online metrics, like AEO and GEO, the game has changed. It is now AI and the bots of Perplexity, ChatGPT and Gemini that are determining where you rank in the vast realm that is the modern internet.
It's not realistic to think that some recruiter or employer is sitting at their desk looking at your online resume or GitHub page. This is literally being done by AI agents now. These agents don't care about likes; they look at how your work actually connects to real solutions across the internet. They map your projects like a web, measuring how much value you add to a specific realm or topic. Instead of a popularity contest, it’s a "utility test" that proves your skills through the actual impact of your contributions. Maybe not a bad thing, but it does require a shift in how you might want to represent yourself.
It may now be be better to prioritize high-utility artifacts, like technical documentation and interconnected repositories. Represent yourself with your technical relationships and verifiable project links. Learn about AEO, GEO and 'semantic density' and how they're used by today's online search technologies. Shift your strategy from the old social "broadcasting" model to building a dense network of verifiable, structured contributions that AI agents can easily parse and validate.
As AI-driven search becomes more prevalent, tangible, verifiable contributions in your chosen area will increasingly outweigh curated social media profiles.
If you're interested in this new search technology, it's explained in more depth in my next article here:
Ben Santora - January 2026
That was a "fun fact" about sharing fun facts and details before AI already: social media and social business platforms luring people into oversharing personal details that could be used against them by hackers and scammers for example. What you're hinting at sounds even bigger and, if not controlled by a business like Microsoft but by a foundation acting in the public interest, might even surface helpful insights. Microsoft has Windows, GitHub, Copilot and LinkedIn, and at least the latter keeps nagging users to install its native app on their mobile phones so they can even gather more data and send push notifications.