The forthcoming AI-powered product is the first step toward providing every worker with their own personal talent agent through Indeed.
Key Takeaways
- Pathfinder is an upcoming AI-powered product that will provide job seekers with the resources to develop a career path, helping employers fill talent gaps.
- Indeed CEO Chris Hyams’ daughter, Mazie, was one of Pathfinder’s early testers.
- Indeed is committed to using AI responsibly and keeping the human at the center of hiring decisions.
Indeed CEO Chris Hyams kicked off the Indeed FutureWorks 2024 conference by sharing his vision of giving every job seeker their own personal talent agent and every employer their own personal talent scout. In making this goal a reality, Hyams previewed Indeed’s upcoming AI-powered product: Pathfinder. “This is not some robot to replace humans — it’s you,” he said.
In anticipation of Indeed’s 20th anniversary in November, Hyams also reiterated the company’s mission that has guided Indeed since its inception. “We help people get jobs,” he said from the stage. “This mission is fueled by a bigger purpose, and an understanding that a job isn’t just a job; we know that better work leads to better lives. And it begins with hiring.”
So, what will the next 20 years of Indeed look like? In his own words, here’s how Hyams described Indeed’s impact and its plan to continue leveraging AI-powered products — including Indeed's upcoming career-pathing product, Pathfinder — for the future of work.
Indeed’s CEO Chris Hyams on stage at Indeed FutureWorks 2024
How Hyams’ Daughter Made Him Double Down on Indeed’s Next Big Idea
I have two daughters, Emma and Mazie. Emma has had a steady and growing career in technology for the last 10 years. Mazie is on a different path.
Since she was little, Mazie had a dream of working in the film business. Starting in middle school, she worked every summer at film festivals, on sets, reading scripts and helping executives. She worked her way through college as a barista to save money so she could pay her dues with unpaid summer internships.
Her hard work paid off: After graduation, Mazie moved to Los Angeles, where a film job was waiting for her. It was February of 2020. Six weeks later, the film industry, along with much of the rest of the world, shut down. She was back at a coffee shop for the next two years, until she found film work again — only to have the industry shut down once more in 2023 in the face of writers’ and actors’ strikes. The industry still has not fully recovered.
Mazie has been searching, applying and waiting to hear back — over and over and over for months on end. I’ve been sharing her job search journey with the Indeed team, and when I recently asked if I could share her story at a company update, her answer was: “Feel free to tell everyone that it sucks the absolute most! Thanks for asking ❤️”
Like so many other job seekers around the world, Mazie finds herself at a crossroads. Her hospitality work just barely pays the bills. Her chosen industry is in upheaval due to macroeconomic forces and the looming question of how AI will transform or disrupt the film business. She wants to find a more sustainable career path in the face of all this uncertainty, but she doesn’t know what her next role looks like. And she is not alone.
The single most common search on Indeed is what we call a blank query. It’s when a job seeker fills in the “where” box, or which city or town they’re looking for work in, and leaves the “what” box, or what job they hope to get, blank. Globally, roughly 30% of all searches are blank queries, as if to say: “show me what you’ve got.”
So how can we help the tens of millions of job seekers like Mazie?
At the highest levels, professional athletes, movie stars, recording artists — they’re each individually represented by a talent agent. A talent agent is someone who knows everything about you — your skills, your preferences. They know how to position and explain that to an employer. They know everything that’s happening in an industry. They know all the people who are hiring and exactly what they need, and they work tirelessly on your behalf to chase down every new opportunity.
What if this kind of personal support was available not just to megastars?
This is our vision for the future. Through Indeed, every worker in the world will have their own personal talent agent. This might have sounded like science fiction just a few years ago, but with the power of AI, it’s now possible. As a first step, we’ve been working on a new product called Pathfinder.
Introducing Pathfinder, Indeed’s Upcoming AI-Powered Product
Pathfinder helps someone discover a career path — either growing in their current career or evolving into something new. Last week, I sat down with Mazie and took it for a spin.
Pathfinder starts by analyzing a user profile and identifying key skill groups, along with the user’s level of expertise in each of these areas. It then asks the user to rank those skills based on which they want to build on.
This is an important feature for Mazie because she’s got pretty broad experience, from hospitality and administrative support to research and writing to production. And while her most recent experience is in hospitality, that’s precisely the skill set she wants to move away from. Instead, she’d rather prioritize her administrative and executive support skills.
Pathfinder then asks a series of questions about what’s most important in a new role. Given all of the uncertainty in the film business, the most important thing right now for Mazie is job security. And while she’s open to learning new skills, she would ideally like to find something that leverages what she already knows.
Pathfinder then generates multiple possible career paths for the user to explore. Each role that Pathfinder served up to Mazie explained how her skills and interests would make it a good fit. It showed earning potential, outlined sample future career trajectory, along with the demand for each of the roles along the way. It also listed some of the key challenges and opportunities. It showed which specific skills employers are looking for and how they match her experience. It also outlined the most common education and training background requirements found in job postings.
Looking to refine the suggestions, Mazie told Pathfinder in plain English: “I’m not interested in content creation.” After thinking for another minute, it came back with a new round of options that all resonated. Eventually, “office manager in a creative arts organization” caught her eye. She liked that it would leverage her organizational skills while still [allowing her to remain] creative. It also clearly aligned with her desire for stability, and it’s a step away from hospitality.
Pathfinder then outlined a detailed plan for pursuing a career in office management in a creative organization.
Finally, Pathfinder shared a detailed transition plan. It outlined the key areas for development, and for each one of those areas Pathfinder provided specific learning tasks, and even recommended books to read, as well as on-demand online courses.
Mazie was pretty impressed — and, frankly, so was I.
Using Pathfinder introduced her to career paths she had never considered or even knew existed. Soon, we’ll be able to help tailor her resume and create a cover letter highlighting her transferable skills, and even prepare for interviews in a new field. Mazie has a range of new options — and a helping hand along the way.
And soon, everyone else will have a helping hand too.
From Search Engine to Two-Sided Marketplace: How Indeed Has Evolved
In 2004, when Indeed was founded, the online hiring landscape was dominated by job boards like Monster and CareerBuilder. These platforms were essentially digital versions of a newspaper classified ad.
We saw a better way.
Over the past two decades, we’ve evolved from a search engine to an AI-powered two-sided marketplace, connecting job seekers and employers with simplicity and speed.
Which brings us to where we are today. Every month we’re connecting 350 million job seekers with more than 3.5 million employers. Across the world, 23 job seekers are hired on Indeed every minute. That’s more than one every three seconds.
Pathfinder is not some robot to replace humans. It’s you.
Chris Hyams, Indeed CEO
This scale is made possible by the power of AI, but, at Indeed, we are committed to keeping humans at the center of everything we do. Pathfinder is not some robot to replace humans. It’s you. Think of it as a superhero suit that puts the power of Indeed’s data and AI at your fingertips.
The average American worker will spend 90,000 hours of their life at work. The time we spend at work is precious, and the work we all do to help people get jobs is a kind of sacred responsibility. Despite how far we’ve come, looking at the incredible opportunities ahead, it is no exaggeration to say that we are all just getting started.
Read more Indeed FutureWorks 2024 coverage:
Indeed FutureWorks 2024: Trevor Noah on Skills-First Hiring and Politics at Work
Indeed FutureWorks 2024: A Billion-Dollar Founder on AI and Entrepreneurship
Indeed FutureWorks 2024: What AI-Powered Products Look Like in Action
In Conversation: Indeed CEO Chris Hyams and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
Indeed FutureWorks 2024: AI Can Do a Lot — But It Can’t Do Your Job
Indeed FutureWorks 2024: A Former Fortune 500 CEO on Cherishing Your Workforce So They Can Prosper
Indeed FutureWorks 2024: Real Talk on Moving Past the Anxiety to Embrace Responsible AI
Indeed FutureWorks 2024 Attendees on Ghosting, Skills-First Hiring, AI
The Top Mic Drop Moments from Indeed FutureWorks 2024
Indeed FutureWorks 2024: Unlocking Profit and Performance with Employee Wellbeing
Indeed FutureWorks 2024: How Talent Leaders Can Reclaim DEI in a Divisive Time
Indeed FutureWorks 2024: What is “Worklife,” and How Does it Impact Your Employer Brand?
