Feature Fails of the Week- Mobile LinkedIn with AI

It happens, someone has a good idea and unfortunately, theory is better than reality and it just creates more frustration than functionality.  I’ve been wanting to blog about Technology gaffs for quite a while and I’ll put them in the category of rants, and hopefully folks can chime in with their own opinions… 🙂

for this week’s rant, I’ll discuss how LinkedIn,  just like every other product in the friggin’ world, decided it needed to incorporate AI into their customer interface.  For anyone wanting to post, you get the following opportunity to write a few ideas or prompts and AI is supposed to build you out a post.

 

The theory that AI can help someone with their posts might seem like a great idea, but there just is a value challenge in the beta release when used in reality:

1. The AI update to the prompt isn’t THAT artificially intelligent-

I could have written that out just as easy as the demanded 30 word prompt.

2.  On a mobile device, which is the primary interface for many users, either smartphone or tablet, it requires numerous work arounds for anything other than text if you choose to use the AI option:

3.  I thought first, pictures and other additions to your post might be hiding under the screen’s keyboard-  nope. The Post and the Create Draft, you’ll notice is ‘grayed out’. There’s really no other option than the “X” to cancel out and go to the previous screen.  I can type in 30 words and post just text, but what if I want to add a picture, etc.?  There just isn’t any option and once I do Create Draft, there doesn’t seem to be any way to retrieve it.

And then when you hit the X to return to the previous screen, you lose the text you’ve typed in the AI interface, forcing you to type it all out again.

At this point, you can use the original option to write out your post, add pictures, calendar events, etc. and post, but it’s a good thing this is marked “Beta” for now.  A few times, I just ran out of time and chose not to post.

For me, the race to add AI to products often results in a poor experience for customers.  Allowing them to opt in, vs. having to work around a poor beta release should be the default.  The second rule should be “Not everything needs AI…” At least not at this stage.

What do you think about LinkedIn’s AI addition to posts?