How to put AI skills on LinkedIn without sounding like everyone else

Some Australian job ads now mention AI tools somewhere in the list, often next to Excel. Most profiles respond in one of two ways: say nothing, or add "ChatGPT" to the skills list and hope.

Both miss the point. A tool name is not a skill. What a reader wants to know is what you did with it, and whether you can show them.

Swap the tool for the task

Write the task first, then the tool.

• Instead of "Proficient in ChatGPT", write "Draft first-pass responses to customer complaints with an AI assistant, then edit for tone and policy. I review every one before it goes out."
• Instead of "AI-powered data analysis", write "Use Copilot in Excel to build and check reconciliation formulas for month end."
• Instead of "Prompt engineering", write "Wrote and maintain the team's standard prompts for summarising tender documents, with a checklist for verifying the output."

Each of these can survive a follow-up question, because it describes something you actually do.

Say how you check it

The part most people leave out is judgement. Anyone can paste text into a chat window. Describing how you check the output is what shows you understand the tool.

Good phrases to borrow, if they are true for you:

• "I verify figures against the source before using them."
• "Nothing confidential or personal goes into a public AI tool."
• "I use it for a first draft and do the final edit myself."

If your workplace has an AI policy and you follow it, say so. If you helped write it, definitely say so.

Where it goes on your profile

• Headline: only if AI work is central to your role. Otherwise leave it out.
• About: one sentence, in the task-first form above.
• Experience: this is where it belongs. Put it under the job where you did it, as one bullet point among your other duties.
• Skills: list the tool by its real name, but only after it appears in your Experience section with a task attached.
• Featured: if you built something shareable, such as a template, a guide for your team or a short write-up, link it here.

Use the same wording on your CV. A profile and a CV that agree are easier for everyone, including you.

What not to do

• Do not list tools you opened once. If the question "show me" would worry you, it does not belong on your profile yet.
• Do not let AI write the AI section. The result is the same paragraph everyone else has.
• Do not overclaim the level. "Use daily for drafting and summarising" is more convincing than "expert".
• Do not hide it either. Using these tools carefully is a real skill. Describing it plainly is not bragging.

A quick way to build the skill honestly

If you want AI on your profile and do not have an example yet, pick one repetitive task in your current work, try an approved tool on it for a fortnight, and keep notes: what you asked, what came back, what you had to fix. That is a genuine example with a story behind it, which is all a good profile line needs.

The same rule runs through everything CVelo does: it writes only from your CV and your own answers, and asks you about anything it cannot see. If you want to check how your CV reads against a particular job ad, the free ATS checker needs no signup, and nothing you paste is kept.