More personalized 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.

Key takeaways 

  • Indeed leverages OpenAI’s GPT models to provide job seekers with greater context for 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 hires. 
  • Indeed continues to leverage GenAI in new ways to help connect job seekers and employers; other GenAI-powered Indeed tools include a job description generator and a resume analysis engine.

When job seekers get recommendations for roles that don’t match their skills or interests, employers waste time and money. Recent advancements in AI — specifically GenAI (generative artificial intelligence) — are helping to match job seekers to relevant jobs in new and exciting ways. 

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

More recently, by using OpenAI’s GPT models and fine-tuning capabilities, Indeed has enhanced the personalized 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 upshot — a more personalized recommendation for job seekers and more started applications and hires 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 fulfill 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 job seekers 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 job seekers,” says Horatio Lun, Indeed Matching Explainer Platform Product Lead. “Now, we can deliver recommendations that are more personalized, even as we scaled from 1 million to 20 million messages a day.”

AI personalization leads to immediate hiring benefits 

A multi-stage experiment conducted over several months demonstrated the effectiveness of the personalized 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 customized context for the job seeker. The performance uplift was immediately noticeable, resulting in: 

  • A 20% or more increase in started job applications;
  • 13% or more greater success further along in the hiring 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 hires.

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

“We have invested in our own AI matching technology for decades to help connect job seekers 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 job seekers, employers and society.”

Indeed experienced an increase in both quality candidates and hires – and a positive impact on revenue – by leveraging GPT-powered context for its Invite to Apply feature.

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 personalized and compelling experiences to help job seekers discover new opportunities and to help employers hire 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 successfully.
  • Candidate Highlights, a feature of Indeed’s Smart Sourcing, is a GenAI capability that analyzes and summarizes each resume 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 hiring 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 job seeker’s work experience descriptions on their Indeed Profile.