How Indeed uses AI to provide better matching context for jobseekers

More personalised job recommendations, developed using OpenAI’s GPT models, make candidates more likely to apply and more likely to be a good fit for the role they apply for.

Key takeaways 

• Indeed leverages OpenAI’s GPT models to provide jobseekers with greater context about why they're receiving a particular recommendation.
• In A/B testing, this approach resulted in a 20% increase in started applications and a 13% uplift in interviews and hired candidates. 
• Indeed continues to leverage GenAI in new ways to help connect jobseekers and employers: other GenAI-powered Indeed tools include a job description generator and candidate summary tool.

When jobseekers get recommendations for roles that don’t match their skills or interests, employers waste time and money. Recent advancements in AI – specifically GenAI – are helping match jobseekers to relevant jobs in new and exciting ways. 

Since its inception, Indeed has leveraged AI to power millions of connections between jobseekers and employers through features such as Invite to Apply, which sends AI-based job recommendations to jobseekers based on their CVs, Indeed profiles and other qualifications.

More recently, by using OpenAI’s GPT models and fine-tuning capabilities, Indeed has enhanced the personalised language in its Invite to Apply feature to better explain why a candidate’s background or previous work experience makes them a good fit for the job.

The result – a more personalised recommendation for jobseekers and more started applications and hired candidates for employers – is the result of a close collaboration between OpenAI and Indeed. It's just one of several ways Indeed is incorporating OpenAI technology to fulfil its mission of helping people get jobs.

‘Invite to Apply is a great example of how companies can use fine-tuning to get even better results from OpenAI models,’ says Brad Lightcap, COO of OpenAI. ‘We look forward to continuing to work together to make it easier to match people with tailored job opportunities.’

New AI models provide better context for job recommendations

Indeed’s early AI models effectively matched jobseekers with employers’ job postings and provided brief explanations for these matches. But Indeed’s product and engineering teams believed that OpenAI’s GPT models could do even more by ingesting natural language to help more clearly explain why a candidate is receiving a specific job recommendation.  

The Indeed team working with OpenAI wanted to add a more insightful ‘why’ to job recommendations. Throughout the development process, which started in 2023, Indeed’s engineering team conducted rigorous A/B testing and continuously monitored and evaluated every change, both during the implementation phase and post-launch.

‘We’re always testing ways to improve the Invite to Apply experience and find relevant opportunities for jobseekers,’ says Horatio Lun, Indeed Matching Explainer Platform Product Lead. ‘Now we can deliver recommendations that are more personalised, even as we scaled from 1 million to 20 million messages a day.’

AI personalisation leads to immediate recruitment benefits 

A multi-stage experiment conducted over several months demonstrated the effectiveness of the personalised job recommendation messaging, initially developed by Indeed and enhanced by OpenAI’s GPT. 

In the A/B tests, the Indeed team put a traditional job-matching version of Invite to Apply up against the GPT-powered version, which included additional customised context for the jobseeker. The performance uplift was immediately noticeable, resulting in: 

• 20% or more increase in started job applications
• 13% or more greater success further along in the recruitment process – specifically, not only were more candidates likely to apply, but employers also found those applicants to be a good fit , ultimately leading to more hired candidates

By leveraging GPT-powered context for its Invite to Apply feature, Indeed experienced an increase in both quality candidates and people hired, which positively impacted its revenue during testing.

‘We have invested in our own AI matching technology for decades to help connect jobseekers and employers,’ says Chris Hyams, CEO of Indeed. ‘Regardless of how good our matching is, explainability is key to any successful recommendation system. Combining OpenAI’s GPT with Indeed’s own proprietary AI and vast marketplace data allows us to connect more people to jobs, faster – a win for jobseekers, employers and society.’

Invite to Apply is just one example of how Indeed is finding success with OpenAI technology. Nearly a dozen products at Indeed incorporate OpenAI technology to deliver more personalised and compelling experiences, helping jobseekers discover new opportunities and employers hire people faster. 

A few examples include: 

• Indeed’s AI Job Description Generator combines the power of OpenAI’s GPT with Indeed’s own proprietary AI to create compelling job descriptions quickly. An initial description created by OpenAI’s GPT gets tailored with specific phrases and details to attract relevant candidates using Indeed’s unique and vast data on what it takes to hire people successfully.

• Candidate Highlights, a feature of Indeed’s Smart Sourcing, is a GenAI capability that analyses and summarises each CV to suggest why a candidate could be a great fit for your role, or to point out potential gaps in their experience. This accelerated evaluation enables you to make better-informed recruitment decisions to preserve both your employer brand and the candidate experience.

• Once it’s fully rolled out, the Work Experience Writer, powered by OpenAI technology, will use AI to create and update a jobseeker’s work experience descriptions on their Indeed profile.