Exclusive: Linktree explains new AI play that is “laser-focused” on social commerce

Linktree’s new chief product officer and artificial intelligence hires will help users make more money from their followers, the Australian scale-up says, as it fortifies its space between traditional social media and e-commerce giants.

San Francisco-based Jiaona Zhang has joined Linktree as chief product officer, after serving as SVP of product for American website builder and hosting platform Webflow.

Separately, Martin Gould and Johnny Hunter have joined Linktree after building Sonalytic, a music-recognition startup that was acquired by Spotify, and This One, a venture helping direct-to-consumer brands turn their landing pages into sales platforms.

The UK-based pair have joined as senior director of personalisation, and principal data scientist, respectively.

Together, their recruitment at Linktree indicates a change in direction for the Melbourne-born unicorn — and a clear focus on the potential benefits of machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Speaking to SmartCompany after their appointment, the trio outlined their hopes for artificially intelligent systems at Linktree, the latest Australian venture to build new features around the promising technology.

“There are countless ways AI will positively impact our Linkers, and one we are laser-focused on is social commerce,” Zhang said.

First and foremost, the startup says AI will complement existing features like Store Link, which allows Linktree users to easily display products for sale through their Linktree page.

“We’re exploring things like product suggestions, link placements and smart [calls to action]”, Zhang said, suggesting AI assistance can help users make savvier and more profitable decisions.

Should it launch AI-generated calls to action, Linktree would pose a new challenge to platforms like Hubspot, which already boasts AI marketing automation.

“AI also has the potential to significantly reduce the time it takes to set up a Linktree, streamlining the onboarding process for new Linkers from minutes to mere seconds by automatically identifying relevant links and helping Linkers direct traffic to what matters,” Zhang continued.

Gould and Hunter — who previously helped Spotify identify copyright-infringing music, and helped develop recommendation algorithms — said that experience will feed into their work with Linktree.

“Spotify has invested in industry-leading tooling that allows them to test a huge number of different ideas very quickly, to get signals on what’s working and what’s not,” the pair said.

“Then, the most promising ideas can be tested on ever-larger cohorts, and eventually make their way into the full-scale production algorithms.”

Gould and Hunter say they are “excited to help Linkers understand more about what resonates with their audience”, claiming further updates in the near future.

Critically, the investment in new AI expertise and Linktree’s product focus emerge as its closest neighbours invest in their own AI e-commerce upgrades.

Meta, parent company of Instagram — a major conduit for Linktree click-throughs — says it is on a “quest to build the world’s largest shoppable social media platform” using AI, and has pledged to bring advanced product recognition tools to the app.

Meanwhile, TikTok is projecting many billions of dollars in sales revenue through its TikTok Shop, muscling in on the monetisation channels promoted by Linktree.

Those upgrades speak to an increasingly cut-throat market environment, where every major platform seems to be targeting Linktree’s core user base of musicians, artists, content creators, and influencers.

But Linktee itself has long branded itself as connected but separate to traditional social media and commerce platforms, and Zhang said the multitude of ways users click through to Linktree gives the scaleup a data advantage.

“By sitting at the nexus of so many platforms, we plan to uniquely leverage AI to deliver cross-platform recommendations that help Linkers achieve their aims in a way that no other player can,” she said.

“We’re exploring how to incorporate this in everything from AI-driven profile building to ongoing insights and recommendations based on benchmarks from within the Linktree ecosystem.”

Linktree expects its new AI-enabled features to roll out in the coming months, with some of its more powerful tools available to paying subscribers.