LinkedIn recently gave everyone a new button for the newsfeed.
Tap the “x” or the three dots on a post and it’s right there in the menu: “Seems like AI slop.”
More than a million people clicked it in its first few weeks, according to LinkedIn’s chief product officer. And LinkedIn says the stuff it classifies as AI slop is now getting about 40% fewer views.
My first reaction? Where was this button two years ago? 🤣
Because I’ve been swimming in it. You probably have too.
AI Slop: It’s in the comments, the feed and the inbox
A while back I posted something on LinkedIn and got this comment, word for word:
“Fascinating insights John. LinkedIn’s true potential lies in personal connections and authentic conversations. Building genuine relationships through DMs can lead to substantial business opportunities. Thank you for sharing your valuable perspective.”
Real people don’t talk like that.
The inbox is worse. Connection requests from people who “came across my impressive profile.” Messages that hope this “finds me well,” then pitch me something I’ve never needed. Every one sounds like the last one, because they came off the same prompt.
The people I talk to have noticed.
So let’s answer the two questions I get most.
Does LinkedIn still work?
And how should you use AI for LinkedIn lead generation?
(At the end, I’ll give you a free way to test it on your own business.)
The villain isn’t AI. It’s generic AI.
LinkedIn’s product chief put it well: “AI and slop are not the same thing.”
Generic AI knows how words usually go together. It has no idea which words start client conversations on LinkedIn, because it has never had to close a deal there.
It doesn’t know your story. It doesn’t know your best client. It has never heard you talk. So it fills the gaps with the most average words on the internet. “Thrilled to announce.” “Unlock.” “Leverage.” “Game changer.”
The copy-and-paste prompts people swap online make it worse. When ten thousand people paste the same “ultimate LinkedIn prompt,” they get the same message. Your prospect has already seen it five times this week. You’re number six.
The reward is speed. You save 20 minutes.
The risk is your name. It’s your reputation riding on that message, not ChatGPT’s.
A consultant I talked with this spring tried letting an AI tool write his outreach. His review? Some of it was “absolutely cringeworthy to the point of like, oh my God, that might actually ruin my deal with an existing client that I have right now.”
And now your prospect has a button for it.
Even LinkedIn blinked. It’s retiring its own “Enhance your post” AI writing feature and swapping in a proofreader. In LinkedIn’s words, a feature that “proofreads your words, instead of changing your voice.”
If you’ve been leaning on ChatGPT for LinkedIn, you haven’t done anything wrong. You did what everybody was told to do. The trouble is that everybody did it.
What I did instead: I built an AI brain trained on my business
I’ve been getting clients on LinkedIn since 2012. I’ve sent more than 850,000 personalized messages. Worked with clients across hundreds of B2B niches. Closed more than $10 million in LinkedIn-sourced business. I’ve written six books on LinkedIn, including the bestseller LinkedIn Riches.
Even ChatGPT put me on a list …
But knowing my name isn’t the same as knowing my voice, my clients or what I’d say to your best prospect. That’s the gap.
So I don’t point AI at LinkedIn.
Instead, I trained a brain on my business. I spent months building it, and I still fine-tune it every week.
Here’s what went in:
- My LinkedIn lead generation frameworks. Everything I’ve learned since 2012 about who to reach, what to offer and what to say.
- My actual voice. Real messages I’ve sent, word for word, so it learns how I really talk, down to where the jokes go.
- My ideal clients, and the problems they describe in their own words. (from sales call transcripts, emails and more)
- My offers, my free playbooks and my client stories.
- A list of phrases it is never allowed to use.
The brain document alone runs more than 50,000 words.
Then the tuning, the part nobody sees. Every Monday morning, it studies the replies I rewrote before they went out and the drafts I threw away, and it adjusts.
Here’s what comes out:
- Who belongs on my list, and who doesn’t. Every lead gets graded.
- Replies in my voice, drafted with the whole conversation in view, not just the last message.
- Custom playbooks that pre-sell a prospect before we ever talk.
- Context on every conversation, so nothing slips through the cracks.
We build the same thing for our DFY LinkedIn Lead Generation clients:
Getting AI to write a LinkedIn message takes five seconds. Getting it to write my message, the one I’d write on my best day, took months. That’s the part you can’t copy and paste.
Does LinkedIn still work? Yes. The process never changed.
Here’s what surprises people: With all the AI noise, the way you land clients on LinkedIn hasn’t changed.
It’s the same process I’ve used since 2012.
1. A client-facing profile. Not a résumé. It answers the only question a prospect has: “What can this person do for ME?” (Here’s how to make your LinkedIn profile stand out.)
2. A custom playbook. A short guide (think a 3,000 to 5,000 word PDF, fully written and designed) to your prospect’s biggest problem, in your voice. You offer it instead of a pitch.
3. A list of your ideal prospects. Build it in LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Every search is a custom digital neighborhood of exactly the people you want to meet.
4. Digital door knocking. Go door to door in the neighborhoods you built. Short list. Right people. One at a time.
5. Permission-based outreach that leads with value. Don’t pitch. Offer the playbook. Nothing else happens until they say yes. (More on writing LinkedIn invites people actually accept.)
6. Spot the interest, then engage. The yeses raise their hands. Follow up, answer their questions and personalize every reply. (Here’s how to turn those conversations into booked calls.)
Step 5 in action, with a made-up example: A fractional CFO who works with construction companies.
The generic AI version: “Hi Mike, I hope this message finds you well! I came across your impressive profile and would love to connect to explore how we might work together.”
The trained version: “Mike - I work with commercial builders your size. I wrote a short playbook on the three job-costing leaks I see most often. Want a free copy? No strings.”
One is a stranger asking for a favor. The other is an expert offering help.
That’s the whole game. No viral posts. No chasing the algorithm.
(Yes, I see the irony of telling you that in a blog post.)
The money on LinkedIn is still in the mailbox. It’s in the DMs. You don’t need to post every day to find clients there.
Where AI fits in LinkedIn lead generation, and where it doesn’t
What won’t work:
- Generic AI running on copy-and-paste prompts
- AI comments on other people’s posts
- AI posts written to please the algorithm
- Any message you wouldn’t sign your own name to
What will:
- AI trained on YOUR business: Your story, your offers, your ideal client, your voice
- Using it for the thinking: Who to reach, what to offer, what to say, how to reply
- You on the send button. Read it, fix what’s off, then hit send.
Skip the generic stuff. Find AI that’s custom-built and trained on your business, or you’re just making slop faster.
Test my brain on your business. Free.
I built a free way to see this on your own business. It’s called Your Next 10 Clients.
Tell it what you do and who you want as a client. It reads your LinkedIn profile and your website, works out exactly who your best prospect is, and emails you a personalized PDF with:
- 10 of your ideal leads by name, with their title, company, LinkedIn link and website
- The messages to send them
- The opening of the playbook they’ll say yes to
It’s yours within 48 hours. No cost, no card, no catch.
Find your next 10 clients, free.
Want a fun test? ChatGPT knows my name. Ask it for your next 10 clients by name, then ask mine, and put them side by side.
That’s good AI in miniature: Trained on your business, your voice and your story, then telling you who to reach, how to reach them and what to say.
Quick answers
What is LinkedIn’s “Seems like AI slop” button?
It’s an option LinkedIn added this summer to the menu on posts and comments. Members use it to flag content that reads like generic, low-effort AI. LinkedIn’s chief product officer says more than a million people clicked it in its first few weeks, and that what LinkedIn classifies as AI slop now gets about 40% fewer views.
Does LinkedIn still work for lead generation?
Yes. The process that lands clients hasn’t changed: A client-facing profile, a custom playbook, a list of ideal prospects, permission-based outreach that leads with value, and personal follow-up in the DMs. You don’t need to go viral. The money is still in the mailbox.
Should I use ChatGPT to write my LinkedIn messages?
Use AI for the thinking, not as a copy-and-paste ghostwriter. Generic AI doesn’t know your story, your best client or your voice, so it writes the same message everyone else is sending. AI trained on your business is a different story, as long as you read every message and hit send yourself.
How can I see AI trained on my business for free?
Request Your Next 10 Clients. It reads your LinkedIn profile and website, works out your best prospect, and emails you 10 ideal leads by name, the messages to send them and the opening of your playbook within 48 hours.
This post first ran in my LinkedIn newsletter, LinkedIn Lead Generation Tips, which goes out to more than 5,900 subscribers. Subscribe there to get the next one first.
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