Sydney, Australia – LinkedIn has partnered with global brand storytelling agency INVNT to stage an immersive four-day activation in Sydney aimed at helping recruiters understand and apply artificial intelligence in hiring processes.
The initiative, called the AI Skills Sprint, was held at LinkedIn’s Sydney office in March and brought together more than 270 talent acquisition leaders and recruiters. The program introduced participants to LinkedIn’s AI-powered recruiting agent, Hiring Assistant, while providing hands-on training designed to improve both AI literacy and human-centered hiring skills.
The event was structured as an interactive team-based experience that transformed the office into a multi-zone environment where participants took part in gamified challenges and practical hiring scenarios using AI-powered tools. According to the organisers, the approach was intended to move attendees beyond product awareness toward practical capability in AI-driven recruitment.
“LinkedIn Hiring Assistant is a powerful AI tool, but the challenge was helping customers experience its value in a meaningful way,” said Laura Roberts, managing director for APAC at INVNT.
“In partnership with LinkedIn, we created a high-energy AI Skills Sprint where teams could learn how to leverage AI by doing. By turning the product into a live challenge, participants could see how AI reduces admin based tasks and helps recruiters focus on the human side of hiring.”
Participants progressed through six themed zones, including a digital experience that quantified time savings from AI use, a large-scale game designed to address responsible AI myths, live demonstrations of Hiring Assistant, and a prompt-engineering challenge focused on emerging skills. Other activities emphasised candidate-first communication strategies and collaborative planning.
The program concluded with teams creating 30-, 60-, and 90-day AI adoption plans and sharing public pledges about their AI initiatives on LinkedIn.
Teena Wooldridge, APAC senior director of marketing at LinkedIn, said the initiative aimed to bridge the gap between AI interest and practical adoption in recruitment.
“The skills landscape is shifting faster than most people realise, and the question isn’t whether AI will change how recruiting works, it already has. The AI Skills Sprint was about making sure the talent community isn’t just aware of that shift, but equipped for it, with the AI and human skills they need to lead in a very different recruiting landscape. What we saw in Sydney was people moving from uncertainty to real confidence, and that’s the shift we’re trying to accelerate across the region,” they explained.
Early performance data shared during the event suggested potential efficiency gains from the AI tool. Recruiters using Hiring Assistant reportedly review 81% fewer profiles to find qualified candidates and achieve 66% higher InMail acceptance rates compared with traditional sourcing methods. On average, the tool can also save recruiters about 1.5 hours per role when identifying qualified applicants.
LinkedIn said it plans to expand the initiative with a virtual version of the AI Skills Sprint to reach a broader audience across the Asia-Pacific region.
