LinkedIn’s new crackdown on “AI slop”: what it means for B2B businesses

At the end of July, LinkedIn quietly rolled out something that could have a surprisingly big impact on the way businesses market themselves on the platform.

On 30 July, LinkedIn’s Chief Product Officer, Hari Srinivasan, announced a series of changes aimed at tackling what he called “AI slop”: low-value, generic content that might sound polished but doesn’t really say anything new.

In his post, he said that LinkedIn “really care[s]” about protecting authentic conversations, adding that: “People come to LinkedIn to connect with real people and share their real perspectives, ideas and expertise.”

Seems like AI slop

The most visible change is the new “Seems like AI slop” button. If a post or comment feels overly AI-generated or inauthentic, members can now report it. Those reports help LinkedIn train its systems to better recognise and reduce low-quality content.

It’s part of a much bigger push. Srinivasan outlined several other measures that LinkedIn is taking to crack down on inauthenticity:

• Automation defences: LinkedIn are now catching and blocking hundreds and thousands of automated comments and spammy posts before they ever reach your feed.
• Reducing the reach of low-quality content – with new and improved classifiers that identify if a post is AI-slop or generally low-quality content. This will reduce the amount of AI slop you might see in suggested content and content from outside your network.
• Giving creators private feedback. They are testing a feature that will let content creators know if readers felt their content was inauthentic or AI-heavy. This will show up in your Analytics dashboard.
• Removing the “Enhance your post” feature. This is an existing feature where users can rewrite their content with AI. LinkedIn is replacing it with a proofreading tool that tidies up your writing but does not change your voice.
• Expanding profile and pages verification. This is so members know who they are connecting with and who is writing the content they are reading. You’ll also be able to block any comments from Company pages you no longer want to see. 

What does all this mean for B2B businesses?

LinkedIn is a hugely important communications channel for many B2B businesses. There’s a huge amount of pressure on businesses to “show up consistently” (whether you have something to say that week or not!) and AI has taken the weight off – particularly for businesses who don’t have an in-house marketing team or external agency support.

Unfortunately, it’s also created a lot of noise. And the reality is that even before LinkedIn introduced these changes, people were already switching off from generic AI-written content. We’ve all become surprisingly good at spotting it. The “It’s not X, it’s Y” clichés. The dramatic “Here’s the thing” openers. The strangely robotic rhythm that posts seem to follow.     

When everyone uses the same prompts, we all end up sounding remarkably similar. And in a sea of sameness, it’s the genuinely human voices that stand out.

Dial up the authenticity

Our advice: Keep using AI if it helps you. Use it to brainstorm ideas, improve clarity or catch the odd typo. But don’t let it replace your experience, your opinions or your personality. Think of it like salt! A little bit can make something better. Too much ruins the meal.

In our role as strategic comms partners to energy and clean tech businesses, we know first-hand that people don’t buy from polished accounts filled with corporate jargon. They buy from people they trust.

It is probably time we stopped thinking about B2B as business-to-business and started thinking about it as people-to-people. Because that’s what LinkedIn is trying to reward. And, increasingly, it’s what audiences are responding to as well.

If creating consistent, authentic content still feels like one more thing on an already impossible to-do list, that’s where we can help. We work with businesses to develop content and communications that sound like them (not like everyone else!), taking the pressure off while keeping your voice front and centre.

Learn more about how we help businesses build authenticity and stand out – or get in touch for advice.