AI-powered professional profiles

Distills vs LinkedIn:
Your Profile Needs to Do More Than List Your Experience

LinkedIn is a directory — it tells people you exist. Distills is a conversation — it lets them understand you. Here is why the most effective professionals use both.

Create your AI profile → See the comparison

No credit card required. Free tier always available.

The comparison

A directory and a conversation — two different jobs

Published March 18, 2026 · by Mike Jones, Distills

LinkedIn and Distills are not competitors. LinkedIn is where professionals get found. Distills is what happens when someone wants to go deeper than a profile page. Understanding the difference tells you how to use both together.

LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network. With over a billion members, it is the first place a recruiter, prospective client, or collaborator looks when they hear your name. Your LinkedIn profile tells a structured story: where you worked, what your titles were, what skills you claim, who has endorsed you, and what you have written or shared publicly. It is built for discoverability — for showing up in searches, for establishing credibility at a glance, for existing in the professional directory that the world checks by default.

Distills is an AI-powered professional identity platform. You upload your career documents and complete a structured AI interview of 20 to 30 exchanges. The platform builds a knowledge base of 100 to 150 entries from that material and creates a hosted profile page at distills.app/c/your-name where visitors can have a live conversation with your AI — asking questions in their own words, getting specific answers in real time. The AI speaks in first person as you: "I led...", "My approach to that was...", "The project I am most proud of..."

LinkedIn tells people what you have done. Distills explains who you are — in conversation, in depth, on your terms. They are not the same tool, and they are not competing for the same job. This page explains how each works, where each wins, and why most professionals benefit from using both.

Head to head

Feature comparison

An honest look at where each wins — including where LinkedIn wins clearly and where Distills fills the gap.

Feature LinkedIn Distills AI Profile
Network & discoverability Billion-member network — recruiters and clients search here first Not a network — a direct link you share, not a searchable directory
Social proof Endorsements, recommendations, shared connections, mutual contacts Not applicable — credibility comes from conversational depth, not network signals
Depth of conversation Fixed format — what you wrote is all a visitor can read Visitors ask questions in their own words; AI answers with specific, first-person responses
Interactivity None — static text, same for every visitor Conversational AI — different answers for different questions, in real time
Analytics Premium only — who viewed your profile, but not what they were interested in See what questions visitors asked, which topics came up, and when (Pro tier)
Availability Your profile is visible 24/7, but you cannot respond to interest in real time Your AI responds to questions 24/7, without your time or presence
Knowledge depth What fits in a profile — bullet points, a 2,000-character About section 100–150 structured knowledge entries drawn from documents and a 20–30 exchange interview
Custom URL linkedin.com/in/your-name (LinkedIn-controlled) distills.app/c/your-name (Pro) — a URL you own and control entirely
Resume download for visitors Not available — profile is not a downloadable document Pro profiles include a resume download button on the profile page
Best for Getting found, establishing credibility, professional networking at scale Going deep with interested visitors — recruiting screens, client discovery, speaking inquiries

LinkedIn wins clearly on network effects and discoverability. Distills wins on conversational depth, interactivity, and question-level analytics. Both wins are real — the tools solve different problems.

Section 1 of 4

What LinkedIn does well — and where it reaches its limit

LinkedIn's core value is network effects. Every professional who has ever been found by a recruiter, introduced to a new client, or reconnected with a former colleague has experienced this firsthand. LinkedIn indexes professional identity at scale — over a billion profiles, searchable by title, skill, location, company, and connection depth. For sheer discoverability, nothing else comes close.

LinkedIn also aggregates social proof in a way no other professional platform does. Endorsements signal that real people who worked with you confirm specific skills. Recommendations are written testimonials that appear on your profile permanently. Shared connections tell a viewer that you have credibility within their existing network. These are meaningful signals — they reduce the trust deficit that comes with meeting someone new.

Where LinkedIn reaches its structural limit is depth. Every LinkedIn profile answers the same fixed questions in the same fixed format: where did you work, what were your titles, what are your skills, what did you write in your About section. A visitor who wants to know "what is your approach to product launches?" or "how did you handle the hardest project you have ever managed?" has no way to ask. The profile says what it says. The visitor either takes a chance on reaching out — which most do not — or they move on.

LinkedIn Premium gives you signal that people viewed your profile, but it does not tell you what they were actually trying to learn. That gap — between showing up and being understood — is where Distills operates.

See an AI profile in action

This is what a visitor experiences when they chat with a Distills profile — specific, first-person answers drawn from real career history, available any time.

Try the demo profile
Section 2 of 4

What Distills does differently — turning your profile into a conversation

Distills starts where LinkedIn leaves off. Someone found you — on LinkedIn, in an email, through a referral. They clicked your Distills link. Now instead of reading static bullet points, they can type a question: "What industries have you worked in?" "Tell me about a project you led from scratch." "What makes you different from other consultants with your background?" The AI answers immediately, in first person, drawing from the structured knowledge base built from your actual documents and interview.

The knowledge base is what makes this specific rather than generic. During Distills setup, you upload your resume, portfolio, case studies, and any other career documents. You then complete a structured AI interview of 20 to 30 exchanges designed to draw out context, nuance, and depth that documents alone do not capture — your decision-making process, your professional philosophy, the projects you are most proud of and why. The platform extracts 100 to 150 structured knowledge entries from this material. Every answer your AI profile gives a visitor is drawn from that specific knowledge — not from generic AI knowledge, not from LinkedIn, not from something made up.

For professionals who pay for Pro or Career tier, the analytics layer adds something else LinkedIn cannot provide: visibility into what visitors actually wanted to know. Not just who viewed your profile, but what they asked, which topics came up most often, and when interest spiked. That data is actionable — it tells you what to emphasize in your next interview, which part of your background resonates with a particular audience, and when your profile link is being actively circulated.

Section 3 of 4

How LinkedIn and Distills work together — not against each other

The most effective setup is a simple two-layer stack. LinkedIn handles discovery: it is where someone searches for a person with your background, or where a mutual connection says "you should talk to this person." Distills handles depth: once that person wants to know more, your Distills link gives them a way to engage immediately without waiting for a call.

In practice, the integration is lightweight. You add your Distills profile URL to your LinkedIn About section — a single line like "Ask my AI anything about my work: distills.app/c/your-name." You add your LinkedIn URL to your Distills profile so visitors can follow through to your full network presence. The two profiles reinforce each other: LinkedIn establishes you as real and credible; Distills gives the curious visitor a reason to convert from interest to contact.

Job seekers often add the Distills link to their cover letters and applications with a note like "You can chat with my AI profile to learn more before our call." Freelancers put it in their email signature alongside their LinkedIn. Coaches and speakers include it in their speaker one-pager so event organizers can learn their background without scheduling a preliminary call. In each case, Distills is not replacing LinkedIn — it is extending the reach of the impression LinkedIn already created. You get found through LinkedIn. You get understood through Distills.

Section 4 of 4

Who benefits most from adding Distills to their LinkedIn presence

If you spend meaningful time explaining your background to new people — phone screens, discovery calls, coffee chats, speaking inquiries — Distills reduces the repetition while improving the quality of every conversation. Here is how different professionals use it alongside their LinkedIn.

👔 Job seekers

Share your Distills link alongside your LinkedIn in applications and cover letters. Recruiters who click it get immediate answers to their screening questions — which means the calls you do take are already warmed up and substantive.

💼 Freelancers & consultants

Prospective clients find you on LinkedIn, click your Distills link, and get specific answers to their questions at 11 PM on a Sunday. By the time they reach out, they already understand your background — and the conversation starts at a different level.

🎤 Coaches & speakers

Conference organizers and media teams who find you on LinkedIn can engage with your AI to learn your areas of expertise, speaking style, and past engagements before they ever send an email. Warm inquiries convert at higher rates than cold ones.

🏢 Advisors & thought leaders

Your LinkedIn signals authority. Your Distills profile communicates depth. Investors, partners, and prospective collaborators who want to understand your perspective before a meeting can do so entirely on their own time and terms.

If your professional work is primarily internal — same organization, same team, rarely meeting new people — LinkedIn alone will serve you well. If you regularly meet new people who need to quickly understand your background before deciding whether to engage, Distills is the tool that handles that job for you, around the clock, without your time.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Straight answers to the questions we hear most often.

No. Distills is not a LinkedIn replacement and is not trying to be. LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network — it is where recruiters search, where connections are made, and where professional credibility is established through endorsements, recommendations, and shared connections. Distills is a depth layer that sits on top of your LinkedIn presence. Once someone finds you on LinkedIn, your Distills link — placed in your About section — gives them a way to go much deeper than any profile page allows. The two tools are complementary by design.
Yes, in two ways. First, you can add your LinkedIn URL to your Distills profile so visitors can find your LinkedIn from your AI profile page. Second — and more valuable — you can add your Distills profile URL to your LinkedIn About section so that anyone who lands on your LinkedIn profile can click through to your AI profile and start a conversation. Most Distills users put their profile link in their LinkedIn headline or About section with a line like "Ask my AI anything about my work: distills.app/c/your-name."
LinkedIn Premium adds features for the profile owner: InMail credits, who viewed your profile, applicant insights, LinkedIn Learning access, and AI writing tools to improve your profile text. These are tools that help you navigate LinkedIn better. Distills is a completely different product category — it gives visitors to your profile a way to have an actual conversation with your AI, asking specific questions about your experience and getting real-time answers drawn from your documents and interview responses. LinkedIn Premium makes your LinkedIn profile more visible and more informative. Distills makes your professional presence conversational. They solve different problems.
LinkedIn shows what you did — job titles, companies, dates, bullet points, and skills. Distills lets visitors ask what they actually want to know: "What was the hardest part of that project?", "Have you worked with companies like mine?", "What is your leadership philosophy?", "What are you best at that does not fit neatly on a resume?" The AI answers in first person, drawing from both your uploaded career documents and your structured AI interview responses. It communicates context, reasoning, and depth — things that LinkedIn's format was never designed to capture. You can see a live example at distills.app/c/mike-jones.
Distills is better described as an interactive layer that works alongside your LinkedIn profile, not as a replacement for it. Think of LinkedIn as your professional directory listing — it tells the world you exist, establishes your credibility, and helps people find you. Distills is what happens when they want to go deeper: a live, conversational AI that answers their specific questions about your background, any time, without requiring your personal time. For job seekers, freelancers, consultants, coaches, and speakers, Distills handles the discovery conversations that LinkedIn cannot participate in.
No. Your LinkedIn profile stays exactly as it is. Distills uses your existing career history — including the content your LinkedIn profile represents — as source material for your AI profile. During Distills setup, you upload your resume and any other career documents. You then complete a structured AI interview. The platform builds a knowledge base from that material. Your LinkedIn and Distills profiles work side by side, each doing what the other cannot.
LinkedIn Premium Career costs approximately $39.99 per month billed monthly. LinkedIn Premium Business costs approximately $59.99 per month. Distills Pro costs $199 per year (about $16.58 per month billed annually) or $24 per month billed monthly. Distills also has a permanent free tier that includes the full AI interview and knowledge base generation — you need a paid plan for the hosted profile page at distills.app. Many professionals use Distills and LinkedIn Premium together, since they solve different problems.

Ready to go beyond the LinkedIn profile?

Build your AI profile in under an hour. Your career history becomes a conversation — available 24/7, without you in the room.

Create your AI profile →

Free tier always available. Upgrade for a hosted link.