Over the last several months, I’ve had a lot of conversations with clients about AI. Most of the questions are what you’d expect. Will people stop using Google? Will AI change business development? How will professionals get found online if people are searching in new ways? Those are all important questions, but there’s another one I think deserves more attention: Where is AI getting its information?

That question matters because more people are using tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot to research companies, professionals, industries and service providers. They’re looking for recommendations, researching potential advisors, identifying experts to follow and gathering information before making hiring decisions. When AI answers those questions, it has to pull information from somewhere, and much of that information comes from publicly available sources.

LinkedIn is particularly important because it contains a significant amount of professional information in one place. Profiles provide career history, experience, credentials and areas of focus. Content provides context. Recommendations, comments and engagement help round out the picture. Taken together, all of that information helps people understand who someone is professionally and what they may be known for.

Why LinkedIn Matters More Than Ever

For years, I’ve encouraged lawyers, consultants, executives, recruiters and other professionals to invest in LinkedIn because it helps people understand who they are, what they do and why they should pay attention. I’ve seen firsthand how a strong LinkedIn presence can lead to new business opportunities, speaking engagements, media inquiries, recruiting conversations, referrals and valuable professional relationships.

What’s changed is how people gather information. Historically, someone might have searched Google, visited a website, looked at a biography and reviewed a few search results before reaching out. Today, many people are starting their research with AI tools. They’re asking questions and receiving summarized answers. They’re looking for experts, service providers and sources of information without necessarily clicking through multiple websites.

That shift has important implications for professionals. When AI platforms evaluate information, they’re looking for evidence that helps them understand who someone is, what experience they have and what topics they’re associated with. LinkedIn happens to be one of the places where professionals regularly publish information about their work, share their perspectives and participate in conversations related to their industries.

The result is that LinkedIn is no longer just helping people find you. It is increasingly helping people and technology understand you.

How Content Helps People and AI Understand Your Expertise

Many professionals spend a lot of time updating their LinkedIn profile and very little time thinking about their content. A profile is important. It provides context about your background, your experience and your current role. But a profile only tells part of the story.

Content helps people understand how you think. I’ve seen professionals spend weeks refining their profile and almost no time creating content. The profile helps people find you. The content often helps people remember you.

Content comes up in almost every client conversation I have because it’s one of the clearest ways to demonstrate experience and credibility. Many professionals tell me they don’t know what to post or worry they don’t have anything original to say. What I often tell them is that some of the strongest content comes from the questions they’re already answering every day.

  • What are clients asking?
  • What challenges keep coming up?
  • What trends are you seeing?
  • What mistakes are people making?
  • What lessons have you learned through experience?

Those topics are often much more valuable than trying to come up with something clever or groundbreaking.

When a lawyer regularly writes about developments affecting clients in a particular industry, people begin to associate that lawyer with those issues. When a consultant shares observations about leadership, personal branding or business development, people gain a better understanding of their perspective. When executives write about building teams, managing growth or navigating challenges, they help others understand how they approach decision-making.

Over time, those posts, articles and comments create a collection of information that helps people understand what you know and what topics are closely connected to your experience.

Why Content Matters for AI Visibility

One pattern I see repeatedly on LinkedIn is professionals talking about too many unrelated topics. One week they’re posting about leadership. The next week it’s hiring. Then productivity. Then company culture. Then something completely disconnected from the work they actually do.

Any individual post may be useful, but taken together they can make it harder for people to understand what that person is known for professionally.

When someone lands on your profile, reads your content or comes across your name in a conversation, there should be a clear connection between your experience and the topics you discuss most often.

For example, if you’re an employment lawyer, people should expect to see commentary about workplace issues, employment law developments, management challenges and topics affecting employers. If you’re a recruiter, your content might focus on hiring trends, career development, compensation and talent strategy. If you’re a consultant, your content should reflect the issues your clients hire you to solve.

I’ve found that professionals often worry too much about repeating themselves. In reality, most people aren’t seeing every piece of content you publish. They’re seeing occasional posts over time and gradually forming an impression of who you are, what you know and where your experience lies.

Some of the most recognizable professionals on LinkedIn return to the same subjects again and again from different angles. They answer different questions. They share new examples. They comment on industry developments. They offer lessons learned from their work.

A few months later, someone is looking for a lawyer, consultant, recruiter, coach or advisor and a particular name comes to mind. That usually isn’t an accident. It’s often the result of consistently contributing to conversations related to the work you do and the expertise you want to be known for.

What to Review on LinkedIn to Improve Your AI Visibility

1. Review your LinkedIn headline: Many professionals still use headlines that only include their title and employer. While that’s accurate, it doesn’t tell people much about the work they actually do.

Think about the questions people ask when they’re looking for someone with your background. What industries do you serve? What problems do you help solve? What topics are central to your work? Your headline should help answer those questions quickly.

A strong headline gives people context. It helps them understand your expertise before they’ve read another word of your profile and creates stronger connections between your name and the work you’d like to be known for.

2. Revisit your About section: Your About section is one of the most underutilized areas of LinkedIn. Too often it reads like a formal biography filled with credentials, job titles and accomplishments. Those details matter, but people are also trying to understand who you help, what experience you bring and why your perspective is worth paying attention to.

Pay particular attention to the opening few lines because that’s what people see before clicking “see more.” If those opening lines don’t clearly communicate who you are and what you do, many people won’t continue reading. The strongest About sections feel approachable, informative and specific. They help people quickly understand what makes you different and why they should connect with you.

3. Create more original content: One of the easiest ways to strengthen your visibility is to create more content based on your own experience. That doesn’t mean every post has to be groundbreaking. Some of the most effective content comes from answering common client questions, sharing lessons learned, discussing trends you’re seeing or explaining developments in your industry. People can find information almost anywhere. What they can’t find anywhere else is your perspective. That’s often what separates content people remember from content they scroll past.

Don’t overlook LinkedIn newsletters and articles. They provide a strong opportunity to showcase your expertise in greater depth while creating content that remains discoverable over time. As more people use search engines and AI tools to research professionals and topics, these longer-form pieces can play an important role in strengthening your visibility and credibility.

4. Focus on a few core topics: When I review LinkedIn profiles and content, one of the first things I look for is focus.

Can someone quickly understand what this person is known for professionally? Can they identify the topics this person talks about most often? Is there a clear connection between those topics and the work they actually do?

The professionals who are easiest to remember on LinkedIn usually spend time talking about the same subjects from different angles. They answer questions, share observations, comment on industry developments and talk about lessons they’ve learned through their work. Over time, people begin to connect those individuals with certain topics because they’ve seen them contribute to those conversations regularly.

I think many professionals worry too much about repeating themselves. Most people aren’t seeing every piece of content you publish. They’re seeing occasional posts over time and gradually forming an impression of who you are, what you know and the work you do.

As you’re thinking about your content, ask yourself a few questions. If someone asked ChatGPT who they should follow in your industry, would you show up? If they asked for experts on the topics you work on every day, would your name come up? If they asked about your company, would the answer accurately reflect what your organization actually does?

More people are using AI tools to research professionals, companies and industries. The more content you create around the work you do, the more information people have available when they’re trying to understand your experience, your perspective and the topics you’re most closely associated with.

5. Audit your AI footprint: More people are using AI platforms to research professionals, companies and industries. Before reaching out to a lawyer, consultant, recruiter, advisor or service provider, they’re often gathering information through tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot. That’s why it’s important to understand what those platforms are saying about you.

Ask questions about yourself, your company and the topics you’d like to be known for professionally. Are you showing up at all? Are the descriptions accurate? Do the topics you’re known for match the work you’re actually doing? Who else appears alongside you?

The answers can tell you a lot about your current online presence. In some cases, the information is incomplete. In others, it may reflect work you did years ago rather than the work you’re doing today.

If the results don’t accurately reflect your experience or the work you want to be known for, that’s useful information. It may mean there isn’t enough content available about the work you’re doing today. It may mean you’re talking about too many different things. It may mean your profile, content and online presence aren’t telling a consistent story.

One of the reasons I encourage professionals to create content on LinkedIn is because every article, post and comment adds to the information available about them online. Over time, that content helps people better understand what you know, the work you do and the topics people know you for. As more people use AI tools to research professionals and businesses, that information may play a growing role in how you’re discovered online.

6. Don’t Overlook Your LinkedIn Company Page: Many organizations spend significant time building the profiles of their leaders and subject matter experts but pay very little attention to their LinkedIn Company Page. That’s a missed opportunity.

When AI tools gather information about a company, they’re looking for publicly available sources that explain what the organization does, who it serves and what it’s known for. Your LinkedIn Company Page helps provide that context. The company description, industry focus, services, content and employee activity all contribute to the information available about your business online.

As more people use AI tools to research companies and service providers, a strong Company Page can help reinforce your expertise and make it easier for people to understand your organization, your capabilities and the work you do.

7. Pay Attention to Your Recommendations: Recommendations are one of LinkedIn’s most overlooked features. Most professionals spend time updating their profile and creating content but rarely think about the recommendations they’ve received from clients, colleagues, managers and business partners.

What’s interesting about recommendations is that they provide something your profile and content can’t: other people describing your experience, expertise and impact in their own words.

As AI tools gather information from publicly available sources, recommendations add another layer of context about who you are professionally. They often contain details about the work you’ve done, the problems you’ve solved and the qualities people associate with you. In many cases, they reinforce the same themes that appear throughout your profile and content.

If your recommendations are outdated or don’t reflect the work you’re doing today, consider reaching out to clients, colleagues or business partners for updated recommendations that better reflect your current experience and expertise.

The more consistent the story across your profile, content, recommendations and Company Page, the easier it becomes for people and AI platforms to understand who you are, what you do and what you’re known for.

AI and LinkedIn Checklist

  • Review your LinkedIn headline and make sure it clearly reflects the work you do and the topics you’d like to be known for.
  • Update your About section so it accurately reflects your current experience, expertise and audience.
  • Create more original content based on your observations, experience and the questions people ask you most often.
  • Focus on a handful of topics that align with your work rather than posting about unrelated subjects.
  • Publish LinkedIn articles and newsletters to create more long-form content connected to your name and expertise.
  • Review your LinkedIn Company Page and make sure it accurately describes your organization, services and areas of expertise.
  • Request updated recommendations that reflect the work you’re doing today.
  • Search for yourself, your company and your areas of expertise on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot.
  • Compare what AI says about you with how you’d like to be known professionally.
  • Continue creating content that helps people understand what you know, the work you do and the topics you discuss most often.

Key Takeaways

  • More people are using AI tools to research professionals before deciding who to hire, follow, interview or refer.
  • LinkedIn plays a growing role in how professionals are discovered and understood online. A profile explains your background.
  • Content helps people understand your expertise. Focused, consistent content makes it easier for people to connect your name with the work you do.
  • Your own ideas, observations and experiences are often your most valuable content.
  • Search for yourself on AI platforms periodically and pay attention to what information is showing up, what’s missing and how you’re being described.

AI hasn’t changed the fundamentals. People still hire professionals they trust. They still look for experience, credibility and good judgment before making decisions. What has changed is how they gather information.

That’s why I believe LinkedIn deserves more attention than ever. Every article, post and comment contributes to the information available about you online. Over time, that content helps people understand what you know, the work you do and the subjects you spend your time talking about.

More people are turning to AI tools to research professionals, companies and industries before making decisions. The people who are creating content, sharing insights and participating in conversations today are helping shape the information others will find tomorrow.

For more on AI, check out these articles:

How to Quickly Improve Your AI Search Results and Enhance Your Visibility
Seven Ways to Improve Your AI Search Results
Why LinkedIn Is Becoming Increasingly Important for AI Search Visibility
What AI Knows About You and Why It Matters More Than Ever
The AI Prompt I Use When I Need Better LinkedIn Content Ideas

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