So OpenAI is building some kind of job board/matching tool for “AI” professionals. They announced on their blog that they will “help more people become fluent in AI and connect them with companies that need their skills, to give people more economic opportunities.“
As part of this they will be offering certifications for professionals and feed them into big companies that want to hire them (certified prompt engineers?). Details are minimal at this point, nothing has been built yet. But I have seen this movie before and it typically doesn’t end well for big tech platforms.
Just ask players like Facebook and Twitter.
Facebook launched jobs and eventually gave up after it quickly filled with spam postings.
The Twitter tried and it flopped on entry.
So can OpenAI succeed where others fail?
Maybe. The devil is in the details and execution.
If they build something narrowly focused on the next generation of AI skills they have a good shot at becoming a large niche player for that industry. I don’t think it will translate to other industries though. Every niche has its quirks.
What the Pros Think
As HR tech analyst Josh Bersin said, “It all sounds great, but as I discuss below, it’s trickier than it looks.”
Joel Cheesman said they are “naive” on his podcast recently. Matt Charney though has another take. He thinks OpenAI could eventually challenge folks like LinkedIn and Indeed. He wrote recently;
OpenAI for Hiring isn’t about hiring. Not really.
It’s about verticalizing the user journey for the entire future workforce. ChatGPT has become the default interface for learning new skills, building portfolios, writing resumes, prepping for interviews, and, increasingly, getting certified.
So why wouldn’t it also become the default interface for finding a job?
Big tech doesn’t have a good track record in making hiring software or job boards so they definitely have their work cut out for them. The future of job search is going to be more about agents on both sides of the fence (seeker/employer) and having those agents work behind the scenes to get you a job.
We’ll have to wait to 2026 to see what OpenAI launches. If I were them I’d start simple by building an AI expert database. Make the candidates in it the centerpiece, and build it more like a reverse job board where the candidate is front and center.
I’m really curious to see what they build and am hopeful they can breathe some new life into the job board/marketplace arena to move us forward. A lot of times when a company with no experience in HR tech tries to build something they fail to understand the intricacies of the hiring process. But OpenAI probably has a better shot than anyone at this point.
What would disappoint me is if they just build a traditional job board. To me, whatever they come up with has be an AI first product with lots of cool new features.
It all bears watching.
