Who is learning gen. AI right now? Coursera CEO explains

75% of professionals are using some form of AI, according to data from Microsoft (MSFT), while more employers are seeking out workers with artificial intelligence experience. How can future employees learn to utilize AI and where can they find these upskilling opportunities?

Coursera (COUR) CEO Jeff Maggioncalda joins Wealth! to give insight into the online course provider's current curriculum for AI education that could give a boost to workers' skill sets, commenting on the demographics and industries utilizing these courses the most.

"What we're seeing is interesting in the US, there are more women taking courses on Coursera. But when you look at enrollments in generative AI courses, it's 70% men, 30% women. So it's definitely skewing more to men right now, which is a little bit troubling in the sense that many studies have shown that those types of jobs most likely going to be impacted by generative AI, those dealing with language and sound and video often are held by women employees.

"Millennials are accounting for over 50% of the enrollments in generative AI, then followed by Gen Z, and then Boomers, and then in terms of geography, Texas and India. Seems like everybody in Texas and India wants to learn generative AI," Maggioncalda explains

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This post was written by Nicholas Jacobino

Video Transcript

75% of professionals are already using artificial intelligence at work.

And 66% of leaders said they wouldn't hire someone without A I skills.

That's according to a new Microsoft report to discuss the top A I skills, you need to have a competitive edge.

We have Jeff Ma called that course, Ceo Jeff, thank you so much for joining us today.

Obviously A I the hot button topic right now.

I'm curious what types of courses you're seeing gain popularity and momentum amid this A I boom.

Yeah, we, we're definitely seeing a ton of interest in A I courses.

Um You know, we have 800 A I courses altogether and Coursera was founded in 2012 by two computer scientists from Stanford who, who teach machine learning.

So we've been doing A I for a long time but the, the, the traditional A I, the course popularity was really among those building A I.

But with generative A I now you have courses for people using generative A I and there's a lot more people.

So we're seeing four enrollments per minute in gen of A I courses.

The top ones are from Google it's called Google A I essentials.

IBM gen of A I for business leaders and Vanderbilt called Open A I GP TS creating your own custom A I assistance.

So, what skill sets are these courses teaching those who enroll and, and what is the skill set that perhaps is most attractive to potential employers?

Yeah, I think it's a few things, um, overall, pretty much anybody who thinks anybody who makes decisions, anybody who communicates really needs to learn to know how to use gene A I, I mean, it's a great thought partner as a thinking tool and it can help you uh refine your thinking if you use your critical thinking properly and it helps you express your thinking and it even it can help take different sides and challenge your thinking.

So everybody should be learning how to use this as a thinking tool, but specifically what we just launched at Coursera is a whole raft of uh over 100 courses on Gen B I for teams, certain job roles will use Gen B I differently.

Software developers will use Gen of A I to help them write code, marketers will use Joa I to help them write copy and marketing campaigns.

Um We have data scientists who using Joa I to summarize data sets.

So these new courses are really specific for job roles that not only teach you the skills but give you a credential from a branded source like meta or IBM.

Uh, that proves that, you know how to use Ja, I, and who's taking these types of classes?

Is it older Americans, younger Americans, more men, more women?

Yeah.

What we're seeing is, um, it's interesting in the US, there are more women taking courses on Coursera, but when you look at enrollments in generative A I courses, it's 70% men, 30% women.

So that it, it's definitely skewing more to men right now, which is a little bit uh troubling in the sense that uh many studies have shown that those types of jobs most likely gonna be impacted by gene V. Those dealing with language and sound and video often are held uh by, by women employees.

So we see more men than women.

Uh Millennials are accounting for over 50% of the enrollments in Geno A I followed by Gen X, then followed by Gen Z and, and then Boomers and then uh in, in terms of geography, Texas and India seems like everybody in Texas and India wants to learn Geno A I. Mhm.

And, and that leads to the next question too.

I mean, what industries, what specific companies are these folks coming from?

Is it all tech and, and are they taking these courses because they feel like it's the only way to advance their career or are they in some cases being sent by their employers to learn this stuff?

Yeah, we, we have um coursera.org is obviously the version of course, that anybody can come to, you know, from anywhere in the world.

We also sell Coursera for business where businesses license Coursera to train their people.

So a lot of these enrollments, most of them are coming from individuals around the world coming.

And I think you're right.

I mean, there's a lot of studies that show that uh employers are looking for gen of a skills.

Uh There was a light cast just posted a survey that said that the job requirements for Gene of A I are 20 times higher.

So there are 20 times more job postings now requiring gen of I skills than a year ago.

And so a lot of people are coming to say A I should learn the skills generally.

And for my job and B I wanna get a credential on Coursera that I could, I could put on my linkedin to show people I know how to use to do my job using J MA I.

And what's your viewpoint on the sentiment surrounding A I?

Just through your conversations with clients, customers, it felt like in the beginning everyone was nervous that A I was going to take over human jobs.

But now it seems to be this embrace of A I.

Have you felt that shift in sentiment?

Yeah.

You know, II I agree, I think right?

When GP T four came out, well, when chat GP T came out, it was a, a bit of like cold water and a major shock.

And people thought, oh my gosh, this is pretty powerful and it's moving quickly.

And then GP T four came out shortly thereafter and it was a major advance in people.

I don't, if it keeps going at this rate, everyone's gonna be out of a job.

I think there's been a little bit more measured view of like, OK, it's not gonna reach human intelligence, you know, in the next six months.

And so this is gonna be a tool that people can use.

People often do say, and I agree with this that A I might not replace jobs, but people using A I to do their job more effectively will replace people who aren't.

And when we see all these enrollments in places like India, you know, there's a lot of skilled people who are now using these, these critical thinking tools to become more effective and, and, and a lot of employers are looking abroad for employees who are able to use these kinds of skills perhaps at lower cost.

So I I think it's important that even if the job doesn't get replaced, people learn these skills and can prove that they've learned these geno skills.

And it's interesting to you, Jeff because your company has been impacted by the rise of artificial intelligence that has pressured earnings in recent quarters.

But how do you think the rise of the demand when it comes to these gen A I courses will help your business and your stock moving forward the day that Coursera was founded uh back in 2012, the who the whole premise was bring universal access to great education so that people could not only have access to learning, but also have access to job opportunities.

And the reason that people need to learn new things is because things are changing, the faster things change, the more people need to learn.

And so we see Gene of A I, not only as something that has created a lot faster rate of change and will require new skills, but it also totally redefines how people will learn and how people will will teach.

So we see it as a big opportunity, which is why we've really been leaning into the content piece, the learning piece, uh and the teaching piece as well.

And you guys report earnings next week.

So looking forward to that Jeff Manion, Calda Coursera CEO.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Thanks for having me.