Why employers can no longer trust an old LinkedIn job title

What people are adding, and what they’re dropping

The researchers tracked how language tied to three in-demand skill areas moved through these edits between 2021 and 2026: artificial intelligence, remote work, and diversity, equity and inclusion.

AI-related terms, things like “AI,” “GPT,” “LLM” and “artificial intelligence,” have been added to old job descriptions at more than six times the rate seen before ChatGPT launched in late 2022, though the study notes that growth has cooled off in recent months.

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Work-from-home language tells a different story. Additions of terms like “remote” and “hybrid” slowed down steadily through 2024, and by the end of the study period, people had stopped net-adding remote language to old roles altogether. That lines up with the broader wave of return-to-office mandates that’s swept employers over the past couple of years.

DEI-related terms saw the sharpest reversal of all. Additions of words like “diversity,” “equity” and “inclusion” fell off sharply at the start of 2025, right when the Trump administration’s executive orders targeting DEI programs kicked in across the federal government and among federal contractors.