Demand for generative AI (genAI) courses is surging, passing all other tech skills courses and spanning fields from data science to cybersecurity, project management, and marketing.
Coursera, in its fourth annual Job Skills Report, says demand for genAI-trained employees has spiked by 866% over the past year leading to strong interest in online learning. Over the past two years, 12.5 million people have enrolled in Coursera’s AI content, according to Quentin McAndrew, global academic strategist at Coursera.
Mastering AI skills is essential to stay competitive now, McAndrew said, and students are shifting from understanding genAI to applying it in their roles to save time, work smarter, and deliver “measurable impact.”
“AI and GenAI have become the most in-demand skills across all industries,” she said. “AI skills now appear in almost every job posting, which unlocks opportunities for higher wages and career growth for job seekers.”
“Demand for genAI learning has exceeded that of any skill we’ve ever seen on Coursera, and learners are increasingly opting for role-focused content to prepare for specific jobs,” said Marni Stein, Coursera’s chief content officer.
The rush for online learning about genAI isn’t restricted to Coursera. Other online learning hubs, including Udemy, O’Reilly and Workera, are seeing much the same thing.
At Coursera, the top genAI courses in 2024 were:
- Google AI Essentials (Google)
- Generative AI for Everyone (DeepLearning.AI)
- Introduction to Generative AI (Google Cloud)
- Generative AI with Large Language Models (Amazon Web Services; DeepLearning.AI)
- Generative AI: Introduction and Applications (IBM)
- Generative AI for Executives and Business Leaders – Part 1 (IBM)
- Introduction to Generative AI for Software Development (DeepLearning.AI)
- Microsoft 365 Copilot: Personal Productivity for All (Vanderbilt University)
- Accelerate Your Learning with ChatGPT (Deep Teaching Solutions)
Greg Brown, CEO of online learning platform Udemy, echoed what Coursera officials have seen. “As genAI skills become the new standard for workplace tech proficiency, we are seeing a surge in demand for skills like ChatGPT and leadership for change management,” he said.
Udemy research found that while nearly 90% of employees see leadership as key to their company’s genAI transformation, only 48% feel confident their top execs are prepared to lead the initiatives.
“AI proficiency is no longer novel or ‘nice-to-have,’” Brown said. “It is mission-critical for organizations to future-proof their workforce and for professionals to further develop their careers.”
On Udemy’s platform, students are choosing to upskill with AI tools such as ChatGPT, MidJourney, and DALL-E. The company’s Top 100 Surging Workplace Learning Skills list ranked ChatGPT and generative AI as the second fastest-growing skill, with AI in the sixth spot.
Udemy said its top business courses over the past 90 days include:
- Machine Learning A-Z: AI, Python & R + ChatGPT Prize [2025]
- Artificial Intelligence A-Z 2025: Build 7 AI + LLM & ChatGPT
- ChatGPT: Complete ChatGPT Course For Work 2025 (Ethically)!
- How to use ChatGPT and Generative AI to help create content
- LLM Engineering: Master AI, Large Language Models & Agents
- Artificial Intelligence & ChatGPT for Cyber Security 2025
Learning about genAI for productivity at Udemy has surged 859% from a year ago, with more than four million enrollments. Numerous AI certification courses, including Microsoft Azure AI Engineer Associate and Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals, have also grown significantly — up 311% and 197%, respectively.
“Forward-thinking companies understand the power of genAI,” Brown said. “Integrating genAI across the workforce is like migrating your infrastructure to the cloud,.”
According to a new study by tech learning platform O’Reilly, AI technologies are driving the most significant shifts in technology education. Interest in almost all of the top skills is up from 2023 to 2024: Prompt Engineering grew 456%; AI Principles grew 386%; Generative AI grew 289%; Natural Language Processing grew 39%; AI grew 190%; and Machine Learning grew 9.2%.
Interestingly enough, among the top topics the most significant decline was for GPT itself, which dropped by 13%. “Not a huge decline but certainly a significant one,” said Mike Loukides, vice president of emerging technology content at O’Reilly.
That loss of interest in some ways dovetails with what research firm Gartner said last August — that genAI was slipping into the “trough of disillusionment.”
Loukides said developers are now prioritizing foundational AI knowledge over platform-specific skills to better navigate across various AI models such as Claude, Google’s Gemini, and Llama.
“This year’s report also highlights the rapid rise of critical AI-related skills tied to LangChain and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), which have rapidly gained prominence and are now comparable in usage to established AI libraries like PyTorch and Keras,” he said. “These advancements empower developers to build more sophisticated applications on top of AI models, marking the next frontier in AI development.”
The biggest AI usage increases were in prompt engineering (up 456%), AI principles (up 386%), and genAI (up 289%). Notably, GitHub Copilot content saw a 471% surge, highlighting developers’ growing interest in productivity-enhancing tools, according to the O’Reilly report.
The next wave of AI development will be building agents — software that can plan and execute complex actions. “This year marks a pivotal transition in technology, with AI evolving from generative capabilities to a transformative force reshaping how developers approach their craft,” Loukides said.
Loukides said interest in learning programming languages appears to be waning, with Rust being a notable exception. If that’s happening because users expect AI to handle language details, that could be “a career mistake,” he said.
But Kian Katanforoosh, CEO Workera, an AI-driven talent management and skills assessment provider, said people aren’t less interested in learning programming languages — Python recently surpassed JavaScript as the most popular language. Instead, there’s been a decline in learning the specific syntax details of these languages, he said.
“What most people should focus on is understanding what a programming language enables them to do and how it works at a high level, rather than memorizing syntax…,” Katanforoosh said. “The mindset of programming remains crucial — it fosters problem-solving skills that are widely applicable.”
It’s also important, he added, to recognize the different tiers of AI learners:
- AI-aware individuals, who want to understand AI concepts and their implications.
- AI practitioners, who are focused on leveraging AI technologies to build applications.
- AI builders, who develop the models or infrastructure that power AI.
“Each group is learning distinct skills, and tailoring education to these tiers could unlock even greater potential for AI adoption and innovation,” Katanforoosh said.
Along those lines, Coursera’s fourth annual Job Skills Report, based on insights from five million enterprise learners and more than 7,000 institutional customers, found the key skills organizations and individuals are prioritizing for 2025. They included:
- GenAI — using AI to generate text, images, and more
- Artificial neural networks — building computer systems that learn like human brains do
- Computer vision — teaching computers to “see” and understand images
- PyTorch (machine learning library)— using this tool to build powerful AI applications
- Machine learning — teaching computers to learn from data
- Applied machine learning — using machine learning to solve real problems
- Deep learning — building advanced AI systems for complex tasks
- Supervised learning — training AI using labeled examples
- Reinforcement learning — training AI through trial and error
- Machine learning operations (MLOps) — managing and deploying machine learning systems effectively.
According to Coursera’s Stein, the top three fastest growing skills for 2025 are Prompt Engineering (Vanderbuilt University), ChatGPT Advanced Data Analysis (Vanderbilt University), and Preparing Data for Analysis with Microsoft Excel (Microsoft).
