AI emerging as top skill employers want: Coursera CEO

The demand for generative AI is skyrocketing across industries, creating an urgent need for employees who are well-versed in this cutting-edge technology. To shed light on this emerging trend, Coursera (COUR) CEO Jeff Maggioncalda joins Wealth! to discuss the increasing demand for AI expertise.

Maggioncalda notes that employers highly value individuals with AI skills, stating that "they would rather have an inexperienced person who knows AI than a more experienced person who doesn't." He explains that there are "a lot of motivations" driving the adoption of AI, with businesses being "focused on productivity gains" to enhance their operations.

Universities are now trying to implement generative AI courses to prepare soon-to-be graduates for the workforce. Coursera, which provides a slew of online learning resources, is beginning to offer its own set of AI classes.

"There's gonna be winners and losers in the labor market based on who learns how to use generative AI," Maggioncalda tells Yahoo Finance, emphasizing the importance of acquiring AI skills in today's world.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Wealth!

This post was written by Angel Smith

Video transcript

Generative A I could add the equivalent of $2.6 trillion to the 4.2.

Well, upwards of $4.4 trillion to the global economy here.

So that's the range here according to a 2023 mckenzie study and employers went in on the action.

According to the online company Coursera, there have been six 134,000 enrollments in A I related courses in 2024.

So far, that's the equivalent of four enrollments per minute up from one enrollment per minute in 2023 for more on the demand for A I courses and some tips for people trying to get into an A I field.

We've got Jeff Magincalda who is the, of course, Sarah Ceo, good friend of the show.

Jeff, great to see you.

And thanks for uh stopping in to really break down the demand for some of these A I related skills.

I, I believe you and I have talked about this in the past trying to get a sense back in 2023 of what that uptick was looking like.

And we've got some more fresh numbers to put on top of that.

What are you seeing over at Coursera?

Yeah, we're, what we're seeing, Brad is that the, uh, the impact of generative A I is starting to ripple through, from just people talking about it to people starting to use it and actually train people for it.

Uh, there are a lot of statistics that show that employers are valuing people who have A I skills, they're looking to upskill their own people.

And they're saying, uh that they, they would rather have an inexperienced person who knows a I than a more experienced person who doesn't.

So as you said, we've seen our enrollments in general of A I go to four enrollments in gen of A I courses per minute in 2024.

That's up four times since 2023.

And so with that in mind, how are you going to make sure that for all the places, course area is because I mean, you've got partnerships with universities, you've got, of course, got your core platform.

You know, what does that do for pricing when you have a surge in demand like this?

Yeah.

You know, we have found that the way we've architected our uh generative A I capabilities on Coursera and we do a number of things.

We, we have used A I to translate courses into 22 different languages.

So that now pretty much anybody in the world who speaks any language can take any course on Coursera.

Uh that was a one time translation, we updated a little bit over time but, but not super costly.

The way that we do the coach, which is the A I assistant is we really get the answers largely from the content in the course.

And this really reduces the cost that we have to spend on using the large language model.

So I think the, the way that companies build their, their, their generated A I tools and services and how efficiently they use these models is really a big factor.

So we're not seeing a huge operating expense that's coming from providing these A I services to learners around the world.

Is, is there a reason that you see so many people trying to get into A I and generative A I specific courses even?

Is it, you know, to get a promotion or is it to make a career pivot or a switch or just figure out what the heck is going on with it?

I I if there is kind of AAA survey that you're having people upon entry or even exit of a program give as to why they or a reason as to why they're so interested.

Yeah, so we see this at a lot of different levels.

At the institutional level, there are a lot of motivations, businesses are really focused on productivity gains.

I mean, that's what we're hearing is, businesses are saying we can really produce higher quality outputs for lower cost if we embrace git A I.

That's what business are doing now.

Universities as institutions, they are being overwhelmed by gene of A I because employers are telling them we want your graduates to have A I skills when they graduate students are saying I want to learn gen of A I skills.

There was just AAA survey from Sen Gage that said 77 7% of the faculty do not feel that their university is prepared to teach students gen of A I.

So it's just coming so fast and so big that institutions are trying to respond to that.

So for institutional readiness, we, we're definitely seeing that now on the individual side, this kind of tailed two cities in a mar in emerging labor pools.

A lot of folks in India, Southeast Asia, Latin America, they're saying if I learn these ja I skills, I can get remote jobs with com companies in the US companies with Europe, others around the world in the US employ uh employees are starting to say if I don't learn these skills, I might lose my job to somebody who's working in a different country.

So there's a, there are gonna be winners and losers in the labor market based on who learns how to use geno V I, you know, just while we've got you here, Jeff, uh I, I took a look at the stock this morning and, and I honestly was surprised that it had drifted to this level here.

What do you think that investors are trying to best understand about the pivot that Coursera is trying to make right now, especially given some of the analyst coverage that, that's been frankly unfavorable for the company.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think what it is is, uh, the way I like to think of it is like a big, a big tidal wave.

People know that there's a tidal wave coming and unless you can get your surfboard to the right place at the right time and, and ride that way it will, it could go under you.

If you miss it, it could crash over you if you, if you're a little bit too late.

The basic thing that Wall Street is saying is, is this gonna be a threat or an opportunity for Coursera and Ed Tech, either it's gonna be something that is a very big opportunity because so many people around the world are gonna need new skills and so many institutions around the world, businesses and campuses and governments are gonna have to redo the way their whole institutions work.

If it's more of an opportunity, then this is gonna be very positive.

If it's, if it could potentially commoditize all content.

And A I does the learning for everybody.

Well, that would clearly be a threat.

And I think while she's trying to figure out is this more opportunity or is it more threatening?

Clearly, we see the opportunity side of it, which is using A I to better educate people so they're more proficient in using A I in their jobs.

Certainly, Jeff, it's great to catch up with you.

Thanks so much for taking some time with us here on Yahoo Finance.

I appreciate it.

Jeff Maggio and Caldo, who was the Coursera CEO.