How to create an AI LinkedIn headshot with this viral TikTok trend

Key Takeaways

The Remini app, popularized by TikTok, lets you use selfies to generate AI headshots.
With multiple selfies as a base, the app can generate dozens of different professional photos.
Remini offers a free trial but costs $10 weekly; it’s a decent option for easy headshots, though real photos are still more professional.

The bizarreness of TikTok trends is really only matched by how short-lived they often are. Some things, like fit checks, are eternal, but others — I’m mainly thinking of the brief flash in the pan that was sea shanties — aren’t really designed to go the distance. The trend of using AI to generate professional headshots for LinkedIn was viral in 2023, and not nearly as popular as it used to be now, but there is still some method to this trend’s madness.

In my opinion, maintaining a LinkedIn profile is one of the more annoying and humiliating aspects of being a working professional. Advertising your achievements, pruning your work experience, and presenting yourself professionally with a well-taken photo doesn’t come naturally to everyone. If you have the ability to take some of that work off your plate, I don’t know why you wouldn’t consider it. If you’re looking to save some money on headshots for your LinkedIn profile, here’s how to get started.

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What app should you use to generate an AI headshot?

One app has proven to be the most popular

The most popular way to generate an AI LinkedIn headshot, at least based on TikTok, is an app called Remini. The app has multiple different AI-powered photo editing features, but we’re primarily focused on its ability to transform ordinary selfies into polished headshots. It took off during the AI headshot trend largely thanks to this TikTok video by a user named Grace (@gracesplace).

With an impressive 52.5 million views (as of July 2024) and the caption, “Using this trend to get a new LinkedIn headshot,” Grace’s video is a pretty good example of the variety of results you can get from Remini, and just how much it generates based on the difference between her original selfie and the Remini-enhanced versions.

How to generate an AI headshot for LinkedIn

Make sure you have a few different selfies to choose from

Starting to generate new photos on Remini.

To create your headshots you’re going to need to have your phone handy and a few selfies to choose from if you’re looking for a larger variety of AI-generated headshots. Once you get everything set up, it should only take a few minutes to generate some usable options.

To start, you need a Remini account:

Download the Remini app. It’s available on both iOS and Android.
Launch the app and tap on the “Get started” button.
On the subscription page, opt-in for a free week-long trial. If you don’t cancel after that week, it’ll cost you $10 per week.
Answer a few questions to fill out your basic profile.
Allow Remini to access your photos.

Three photos generated by the Remini app.

Then, to generate your headshots:

Open the Remini app.
Tap on “AI Photos” located at the bottom of the main screen.
Select the style you want and then tap “Generate my photos.”
If prompted to specify your gender, answer. Otherwise, upload 8 to 12 good, well-lit selfies.
Wait for a brief moment; the app will generate your image. For real-time updates, ensure your notifications are on.
Once done, you’ll be presented with multiple different photo variants. Swipe through, and save your preferred versions.

These headshots will be watermarked at the bottom, but if you’re happy with them, you can use them for other professional platforms, personal websites, or really any place you’d like to put a professional foot forward.

No AI-generated image is perfect

More inspiration than a final product

Remini is best at restoring and enhancing old or low-quality photos. It’s ability to generate headshots is more of a mixed bag. Whether the headshots work for you is going to depend on your preferences and the photos you used to generate them.

I think the app did an alright job generating images that looked like me, but they’re not the most natural. The eyes and mouth are lifelike because that seems to be what Remini pulls directly from your selfies, but everything else is a little too smooth to not feel creepy. The app also isn’t great at matching hairstyles beyond recognizing that you have short or long hair and picking model options that match your basic look. It’s something you’ll have to experiment with to get the look you want.

Considering you can obtain at least one quality headshot by just submitting a handful of photos, Remini has a lot of promise, even if it’s no longer viral as it once was. The $10 weekly fee is excessive, and I think you’ll still get more professional results actually taking real photos, but Remini is still fun to try if you get the free trial, acquire the headshots you want, and then cancel your subscription.