How AI is Changing Small Business Hiring in 2026
LinkedIn Hiring Pro, an AI agent for small business hirers, is leveling the playing field for small businesses and helping them find the right talent faster.
The start of every year brings a new hiring rush. And in 2026, small businesses are heading into it under more pressure than ever.
New LinkedIn research finds that most small business hirers say finding qualified talent feels harder than it did a year ago. And, expectations are rising: nearly 40% say they’re now expected to make high-quality hires faster—all while juggling customers, finance, marketing, and everything else that comes with running a small business. Most don’t have a full recruiting team, yet each hire can make or break their growth.
This is where AI can change the game. Today, LinkedIn is bringing this technology directly to small businesses with LinkedIn Hiring Pro, an AI agent that helps them find, shortlist, and connect with qualified candidates faster. Early results show that nearly 60% of hirers find a candidate to interview within the first week, while those who report time savings see an average of 6+ hours freed up weekly, almost a full work day.
Why small businesses have the most to gain from AI
It’s a misconception that the benefits of AI adoption are reserved for big companies with big budgets. In fact, more than 60% of small business leaders agree AI has made it easier to run their business, according to LinkedIn’s Work Change Report. That’s not surprising; small businesses have always been scrappy and quick to embrace new technology. And today, they’re using AI to help streamline manual, tedious tasks, including in recruiting.
“Hiring stands out as one of the first places where small businesses can see real ROI with AI, and fast,” says Andrew Chimka, Senior Director of Product Management at LinkedIn. “AI helps take the most time-consuming work off their plates, from evaluating and finding applicants with the right skills to initial candidate screenings. It gives small teams better visibility into top talent and more time to focus on conversations with the right candidates to help grow the business.”
Today, 58% of small business hirers say AI helps them fill roles faster than ever and uncover “hidden gem” talent with skills they wouldn’t have previously found, according to LinkedIn. They also say it’s helping streamline initial interview screenings, making it easier to gain insights on a candidate’s skills, and helping them focus on the most important candidate conversations—all of which are helping level the playing field when it comes to finding the best talent.
How small businesses use LinkedIn’s AI to hire smarter
Building expertise in AI recruiting doesn’t happen overnight. It takes experimentation and trust. But with the right tools, making this shift can feel intuitive. That’s evident in how some teams are already using LinkedIn Hiring Pro.
Michael Fleischner, founder of Big Fin SEO, used the tool to bring on a new account manager. The prompts helped narrow the field quickly, leading to a hire who’s already making a real impact on client work.
“I’ve been using LinkedIn Hiring Pro to find stronger candidates and have found it a game-changer,” Michael shared. “I highly recommend this for founders who don’t have full recruiting teams and need an intuitive way to tap the incredible talent pool on LinkedIn.”
Brooke Bayerl, an HR Generalist at Vyper Industrial, used LinkedIn Hiring Pro to hire an in-house graphic designer, and noted the tool not only identified the candidate as a strong match right away, but also surfaced the exact skills they were looking for to back it up.
“As a one-woman HR team, I felt like I had a “mini-assistant” giving me time back to focus on work that really impacts our employees, like candidate conversations and payroll,” she shared.
These examples signal a broader shift in how small businesses define hiring success. Metrics like time-to-hire and quality of hire offer tangible signals that AI in recruiting works. For small teams chasing niche skills, better insights early in the process open doors to talent that previously felt hard to reach.
Where small business hiring is headed next
In 2026, AI in hiring will move from experimentation into everyday application. According to LinkedIn, 86% of small business hirers globally plan to increase their use of AI over the next 12 months, a sign that these tools are becoming part of how lean teams manage sourcing, screening, and early evaluation.
LinkedIn is helping drive this transformation, making it easier for small businesses to identify qualified candidates and start the right conversations faster. As more small businesses adopt AI in 2026, it’s clear that it’s shifting from a nice-to-have to a force multiplier, giving them the speed and edge to compete, and win, in hiring in the new year.
Learn more about how LinkedIn Hiring Pro helps small businesses find qualified candidates and focus on the conversations that matter.