An internal memo shows LinkedIn’s new marketing playbook: fewer staff, tighter budgets, and more AI

• LinkedIn’s marketing team is embracing AI as it cuts staff, an internal memo shows.
• Marketing will also reduce its ad spending, according to an email from LinkedIn CMO Jessica Jensen.
• LinkedIn says it’s positioning itself for future success as it implements “organizational changes.”

The marketing team wasn’t spared from LinkedIn’s layoffs on Wednesday.

LinkedIn chief marketing and strategy officer Jessica Jensen sent an email saying the company is reducing roles “across our team” to cut costs.

“Growth is more competitive, infrastructure costs continue to rise and AI is reshaping how work gets done,” read Jensen’s email, which was viewed by Business Insider. “So we are at a point where our work is important and deeply valued, and we need to reduce costs in Marketing to ensure LinkedIn is positioned for the future we’re building.”

It’s not clear exactly how many members of LinkedIn’s marketing team got cut. A LinkedIn spokesperson declined to provide specific numbers, telling Business Insider that it is implementing “organizational changes” to best position itself for future success.

Jensen’s memo says the marketing team is reducing its paid media spending. While Jensen didn’t give specific examples, paid media typically means paying for Google Ads or other platforms for promotion.

LinkedIn plans to embrace unspecified “AI tools and workflows” to help staff get things done faster.

LinkedIn’s product organizations have also been affected by the layoffs, as they made changes to their operations.

These cuts put LinkedIn squarely in line with the long list of tech companies that are pushing staff to use AI as they reduce head count. Cisco announced an AI-driven restructuring on Wednesday affecting about 4,000 roles. Companies like Coinbase and Block also cited increased productivity from AI as part of the rationale for their own layoffs earlier this year.

LinkedIn is investing in AI in other ways, too. It launched an “AI labor marketplace” where people can make money training AI chatbots to get better at everything from coding to nursing to finance, Business Insider previously reported.

Read the full memo Jensen sent out on Wednesday below:

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