Over the past months, many creators and page admins have noticed visible shifts in their LinkedIn reach, post distribution, and audience targeting patterns. In parallel, LinkedIn’s research team publicly introduced a new large-scale AI model called 360Brew – a foundation model designed to power personalized ranking and recommendation across the platform.
Naturally, the big question followed: Did LinkedIn change its feed algorithm, and when is 360Brew actually being deployed?
This article summarizes only what is confirmed through official sources, separates it from speculation, and maps out what we can realistically conclude today.
What We Know from Official Sources
- LinkedIn has publicly developed a new foundational model called 360Brew. This comes directly from LinkedIn’s FAIT (Foundation AI Technologies) team, via a research paper titled: “360Brew: A Decoder-only Foundation Model for Personalized Ranking and Recommendation” (published on arXiv).
- The model is large-scale and designed to improve ranking across multiple LinkedIn “surfaces.” According to the paper, 360Brew can be applied to content recommendations, job matching, people-you-may-know, and other ranking tasks, not just the feed.
- It is intended to replace many fragmented ranking systems with a unified model. The paper emphasizes that 360Brew’s core advantage is semantic reasoning, understanding text (profiles, posts, interactions) and predicting relevance more intelligently than past models.
What’s Not Officially Stated
Despite widespread speculation, there is:
- No LinkedIn Engineering Blog post announcing a deployment date
- No official timeline for when 360Brew began influencing the feed
- No public confirmation that the feed algorithm has fully transitioned to 360Brew
The research describes architecture, performance tests, and capabilities, but not rollout timing.
Source: Oleksandr Melnyk
Source: The FOLD
What We Can Infer (Carefully)
While LinkedIn has not confirmed dates, there are three reasonable inferences:
| Observation | Source | Likely Meaning |
| The research paper went public in early 2025 | LinkedIn FAIT / arXiv | Model was production-ready or near-ready at that time |
| Model is designed specifically for personalization and ranking | arXiv paper | Intended for feed and recommendations, not just R&D |
| Some creators reported noticeable distribution changes around mid-2025 | Third-party commentary | Suggests a gradual rollout or A/B testing may have begun |
So the most grounded conclusion is: If 360Brew is deployed for feed ranking, it is happening gradually and quietly, not through a single public switch. This aligns with LinkedIn’s historical behavior. The company rarely announces algorithmic changes in advance, and almost always rolls them out progressively through testing waves.
Why It Matters for Marketers and Small Businesses
As Liam Darmody notes in The FOLD, this isn’t just a technical update – it’s a strategic shift. LinkedIn is positioning itself as a branding platform, not just a job board. With 360Brew driving personalization, small business owners, consultants, and creators can compete on the same playing field as large enterprises, provided they focus on trust, expertise and authentic connection.
This aligns with LinkedIn’s broader evolution under its new marketing leadership. The company’s efforts to strengthen brand consistency across B2B, SMB, and personal branding initiatives reflect a clear direction: LinkedIn wants to be the home for professional storytelling powered by AI, but built on human credibility.
The New Rules of the Feed
The new reality for anyone creating content on LinkedIn is clear: stop chasing the algorithm. There’s no shortcut anymore, as 360Brew recognizes authentic engagement. Instead, lean into your expertise, since industry-specific insights now outperform generic viral posts. Think multi-channel – 360Brew predicts performance across feed, search, and notifications, allowing quality content to travel further. Play the long game, because great ideas gain traction over time, not just in the first hour. As the 360Brew paper concludes, “Professional value is multi-dimensional. Our model aligns discovery with quality not quantity of engagement.”
What This Means for Creators and Brands (Regardless of Timing)
Even without a confirmed “go-live” date, the direction is crystal clear: LinkedIn is shifting toward a more semantic, relevance-driven, topic-focused content ecosystem. That means:
- Your profile → niche → content alignment matters more
- Clear writing and topic consistency will outperform hacks
- Meaningful comments will outweigh shallow engagement
- Authority will be built through repetition and coherence
This direction is visible, whether 360Brew is 40%, 70%, or 100% deployed in the feed.
The blog article is created with the help of AI
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