LinkedIn hasn’t meaningfully evolved since 2016 — the year Microsoft acquired it for $26.2 billion. At a time when video has reshaped the internet, creators have transformed how professionals learn, and agentic AI is reimagining the future of work, LinkedIn still looks, feels, and behaves like the product we used nearly a decade ago. For a platform with more than one billion users, the stagnation is striking.
What makes LinkedIn uniquely powerful is not just its scale but its authenticity. It is the only major social platform where most people are verifiably real — not bots, not burners, not pseudonyms. It holds the cleanest, most trustworthy identity graph on the internet: a network tied to real employers, real skills, real locations, and real career histories. This should have been LinkedIn’s greatest advantage. It is the foundation every modern professional platform wishes it had.
Yet LinkedIn has never built the product layer that fully unlocks that value. Authenticity is treated as table stakes — a security measure — rather than the engine for innovation.
Yet LinkedIn has never built the product layer that fully unlocks that value. Authenticity is treated as table stakes — a security measure — rather than the engine for innovation.
Meanwhile, the rest of the internet has reorganized itself into specialized ecosystems built for speed, creativity, learning, and AI-native knowledge — and LinkedIn didn’t move with it. It has the richest data, the highest integrity, and the most durable network effects — but lacks the product ambition to match.
The Monopoly Problem: A Platform Everyone Needs, But No One Loves
LinkedIn’s real-identity network should be its greatest strength. Instead, it became its crutch. With no meaningful competition and near-total dominance over the professional graph, LinkedIn never faced the pressure to innovate. Professionals stayed because they had to, not because they wanted to.
The result is a high-integrity identity engine built for the future — paired with a product still optimized for 2016.
At the same time, LinkedIn’s feed has drifted toward wannabe-influencer content — a steady stream of cringe storytelling, “hustle porn,” AI-generated regurgitations of the news, and engagement-bait posts (“comment below for a list of VCs/angel investors”) that increasingly fuel not just anxiety but disdain and boredom. It’s the kind of behavior people expect on Instagram, not on the world’s largest professional network — yet LinkedIn’s algorithm routinely rewards it, a dynamic even noted in Forbes reporting on rising “LinkedIn anxiety” (Forbes).
X/Twitter Turned Into a Circus — And LinkedIn Still Didn’t Step Up
Over the last two years, X/Twitter has devolved into a chaotic circus — a volatile mix of political extremism, identity attacks, unhinged commentary, and bot amplification. For many professionals, it no longer feels like a place for credible dialogue or thoughtful debate.
This should have been LinkedIn’s moment.
As X descended into hostility, LinkedIn had a rare opportunity to become the home for real-time professional discourse — a stable, high-trust environment for founders, operators, analysts, researchers, and corporate leaders. But the platform didn’t evolve, didn’t introduce new conversation formats, and didn’t build better discovery or discussion tools.
And so the exodus from X fractured — and LinkedIn captured almost none of it.
And so the exodus from X fractured — and LinkedIn captured almost none of it. Some people stayed on X out of habit or necessity. Others reduced posting, went private, or retreated into lurker mode. Many migrated into private WhatsApp, Slack, and Discord groups where conversations feel safer and more curated. Some shifted to Reddit’s more moderated, topic-driven communities. And notably, Threads absorbed the largest share of professionals looking for a calmer public square.
LinkedIn should have been the default destination for credible, high-trust discourse. Instead, it watched as other platforms — both public and private — absorbed the moment it failed to claim.
Microsoft’s $13 Billion AI Bet — And Why LinkedIn Fell Further Behind
What makes LinkedIn’s stagnation more puzzling is Microsoft’s simultaneous transformation into an AI superpower.
Since 2019, Microsoft has invested more than $13 billion into OpenAI. Its stake is now valued at roughly $135 billion, representing about 27% of the company on a diluted basis. OpenAI runs on Azure, sending massive revenue back to Microsoft. The partnership is deep, lucrative, and strategically defining.
During the same period, Microsoft aggressively modernized nearly everything it owns — even products old enough to be considered “geriatric.” Windows (40 years old), Office (35), GitHub (17), and Teams (8) were all rebuilt for the AI era. LinkedIn, acquired in 2016, is the lone outlier.
Even Microsoft Office, once seen as a slow-moving incumbent, has been forced to evolve quickly as Canva has grown into a global design goliath and a direct threat to PowerPoint’s relevance.
LinkedIn, by contrast, faces no equivalent challenger. It remains the lazy leader of the professional networking arena — protected by its monopoly, but weakened by its complacency. You’d think Microsoft would want to keep this fortress strong. Instead, it has treated LinkedIn like a static asset rather than a platform that could define the future of work.
This is especially surprising given LinkedIn’s unmatched structural advantages: real-identity data, predictable behavior patterns, clear AI use cases, and deep enterprise penetration across HR and recruiting.
LinkedIn should have been Microsoft’s sandbox for the future of work. Instead, it’s the one major Microsoft product the AI revolution forgot.
LinkedIn should have been Microsoft’s sandbox for the future of work. Instead, it’s the one major Microsoft product the AI revolution forgot.
LinkedIn Has Video, But Not a Video Ecosystem
LinkedIn often notes that it “supports video.” But supporting video and winning video are two very different things. TikTok built a discovery engine. YouTube built a learning ecosystem. Instagram built visual storytelling formats. Meanwhile, Zoom — a product originally meant for meetings — became the global venue for live classes, workshops, conferences, and community gatherings. Zoom built the arena. LinkedIn never even built the stage.
LinkedIn treats video like an attachment uploaded into the feed, not a medium with its own workflows, analytics, or discovery loops. There are no creator tools, no topic layers, no recommendation systems, no incentives, and no real surface for expertise-driven video to spread. A video posted on LinkedIn is an act of hope, not distribution.
A video posted on LinkedIn is an act of hope, not distribution.
Professionals don’t go to LinkedIn for video because LinkedIn never built a world where video thrives.
The Missed Media Platform: LinkedIn Had the Advantage — And Squandered It
We are living through the most transformative shift in professional media in decades. Professionals no longer learn, build credibility, or share expertise through static text updates. Today, knowledge travels through video, livestreams, newsletters, creator-led education, AI-powered research tools, and community-driven discourse. This is the new professional media stack — and it has become central to how careers grow.
LinkedIn had every structural advantage to become the hub where all of this lived. It had the trust, the distribution, the verified identity graph, and the global audience. No other platform came close. LinkedIn should have become the backbone of modern professional media — the place where experts publish, creators teach, and professionals gather. Instead, the opportunity slipped away.
As LinkedIn stood still, professional media unbundled around it:
- TikTok → fast insights and micro-learning
- YouTube → deep education and long-form expertise
- Instagram → visual professional storytelling
- Substack → high-trust expert newsletters
- Reddit → topic-driven moderated communities
- MasterClass + Skillshare → curated skill-building
- Zoom → live classes, workshops, and conferences
- Axios → concise “smart brevity” news for professionals
- Perplexity → AI-native research engine shaping the future-of-work stack
- a16z → a full media studio for founders
LinkedIn had a decade-long head start on every one of these players — yet it never built the systems that make modern professional media work. There are no high-signal discovery surfaces, no creator workflows, no analytics for verified expertise, no topic hubs, and no interactive learning tools that reflect how professionals actually consume information today.
The result is a feed increasingly misaligned with modern professional culture: dominated by cringe hustle porn, engagement bait, broetry, and ChatGPT-regurgitated advice that rewards volume rather than value.
LinkedIn had the audience, the credibility, and the head start. It simply never built the platform. This wasn’t a missed feature. It was a missed era.
LinkedIn had the audience, the credibility, and the head start. It simply never built the platform. This wasn’t a missed feature. It was a missed era. If LinkedIn doesn’t evolve soon, it risks becoming the Facebook of the professional world: too big to ignore, too static to lead, too slow to matter. LinkedIn could have positioned itself as the “serious internet.” Instead, it remained the quiet one.
If LinkedIn doesn’t evolve soon, it risks becoming the Facebook of the professional world: too big to ignore, too static to lead, too slow to matter. LinkedIn could have positioned itself as the “serious internet.” Instead, it remained the quiet one.
LinkedIn’s Response
LinkedIn provided the following comment for this story.
A LinkedIn spokesperson said the company’s mission “remains to unlock economic opportunity for the global workforce,” and noted that the platform has made “significant investments in AI-powered job search, AI tools for improving profiles, and new AI-driven people search features designed to help members discover the right roles and connections more efficiently.”
LinkedIn also highlighted updates to its feed, including efforts to surface “timely professional conversations” and improvements to video discovery. The company pointed to ongoing investment in LinkedIn Learning, with AI-enabled coaching, personalized skill-practice tools, and partnerships with industry experts to deliver high-demand education.
LinkedIn emphasized that “trusted credibility” — real identities tied to real expertise — remains its defining strength in an era of algorithmic content and AI-generated noise.
Founders, LinkedIn Is Asleep at the Wheel — Go Build the Future
The professional world is undergoing a once-in-a-generation platform shift. Identity, learning, hiring, credibility, community, expertise, and AI-driven workflows are all being rebuilt from scratch — everywhere except LinkedIn. The gap between what professionals need and what LinkedIn offers has widened into a vacuum. And vacuums create billion-dollar companies.
Founders, this is your opening.
The next great professional platform will not be a résumé warehouse or a static feed. It will be an AI-native operating system for modern work — something built for how professionals actually build credibility, learn, collaborate, and get things done today.
It will include:
- dynamic professional identities
- reputation engines and verified expertise
- interactive portfolios
- high-signal, topic-driven communities
- creator tools for experts, not influencers
- real discovery surfaces, not passive feeds
- micro-learning loops and skill-building layers
- AI agents that understand your work, your relationships, and your goals
- collaboration tools natively tied to identity
- live and asynchronous knowledge sharing
This is not a feature gap. This is a platform vacuum — one that LinkedIn is structurally incapable of filling under Microsoft’s incentives, pace, and product philosophy.
This is not a feature gap. This is a platform vacuum — one that LinkedIn is structurally incapable of filling under Microsoft’s incentives, pace, and product philosophy.
LinkedIn is still essential, but no longer inevitable. Its monopoly created complacency. Its stagnation created opportunity. And its lack of urgency created white space across every axis of professional life.
And its lack of urgency created white space across every axis of professional life.
The next LinkedIn will not come from Microsoft. It will come from builders who understand that the future of work will be dynamic, AI-native, community-driven, and creator-led — not static, corporate, and stuck in 2016.
Founders, LinkedIn is asleep at the wheel. This is your billion-dollar opportunity.
The Bottom Line
LinkedIn is still the backbone of professional identity — but it has drifted into cultural and product irrelevance during the most transformative decade in the future of work.
This wasn’t about what LinkedIn didn’t ship. It was about what the entire industry reinvented without it.
Everything professionals actually do — build skills, share knowledge, find collaborators, showcase expertise, join communities, and work with AI — is now happening everywhere except LinkedIn.
That vacuum will not stay empty.
The next wave of founders will build what LinkedIn should have become:
an AI-native professional operating system, a media engine for verified expertise, and a dynamic identity layer for the modern internet.
LinkedIn may still matter. But the future will be built by someone else.
