Following the EU AI Act data literacy mandates coming into force earlier this month, new data from Coursera reveals that AI upskilling in European organisations is skyrocketing, as leaders rush to ensure that workers have the required level of understanding of AI technology, as per the EU AI Act specifications.
‘Generative AI Cybersecurity & Privacy for Leaders: A Primer’ has proved the most popular course for businesses. This course features skills essential for leveraging AI tools securely, which is increasingly important for companies for staying competitive in an AI-driven job market.
These are the findings from Coursera’s Job Skills Report 2025, drawing on insights from over five million learners, who accessed Coursera through a university, business or government partner.
The race to AI literacy, spurred by the EU AI Act
GenAI is now the fastest-growing job skill, as Coursera saw an 866% year-over-year enrolment increase across enterprise learners. Among employees, students, and job seekers, this meant a 1,100%, 500%, and 1,600% increase in course enrolment for each group, respectively.
On the Coursera platform, there are now seven people per minute enrolling in GenAI content. In 2024, there was one enrolment every ten seconds versus just one per minute in 2023.
Under the EU AI Act, the obligation to promote AI literacy will help facilitate safe deployment of AI, boosting levels of awareness about opportunities and potential risks around emerging technology, and an understanding of any context in which it can cause harm. With this regulatory drive, we’re now seeing business learners access AI courses to better equip themselves with technical knowledge.
Technical AI knowledge proves vital for learners
From Coursera’s Job Skills Report, artificial neural networks, PyTorch (machine learning library), reinforcement learning and supervised learning all rank as top 10 fastest-growing AI skills for employees and job seekers.
Coursera’s findings show significant interest in courses including ‘Generative AI for Everyone’ from DeepLearning, and ‘AI and Generative AI with Large Language Models’ from AWS alongside DeepLearning, indicating a focus on understanding holistic GenAI capabilities.
Courses such as ‘Google AI Essentials’ and ‘Introduction to Generative AI’ from Google Cloud are also ranked highly among employees, students, and job seekers, demonstrating a shared focus on building a solid foundation in GenAI concepts.
The gender divide in AI skilling
As 80% of the engineering workforce will require GenAI upskilling by 2027, employees must be well-versed in applying AI to drive productivity and innovation in their roles. In 2024, more than 450 unique GenAI courses were launched on Coursera, reflecting the rising demand for skills in this transformative technology.
Despite this, skilling inequalities are emerging for AI. Only 22% of AI professionals are women, leading to biases in these models due to a lack of diverse perspectives in building them.
Nikolaz Foucaud, Managing Director EMEA, Coursera said: “With 22% of recruiting professionals updating job descriptions to reflect the use of GenAI, it’s not surprising that employees, students and job seekers are pursuing AI skilling in record numbers. We saw a staggering 866% year-over-year enrolment increase across enterprise learners.
“With the AI literacy mandate through the EU AI Act’s implementation, it’s vital that businesses set out clear policy on AI learning and development. While AI-related education has been explored by many out of self-interest, its investment now needs to be officially coded into work policy. Leaders must also ensure they are addressing any accessibility challenges, especially since there is an emerging disparity between gender uptake in AI learning, with only 32% of AI enrolments on Coursera coming from women.
“In the same way we’ve seen cybersecurity talent gaps, we could encounter similar issues for AI. This is why investing in internal resources and skilling drives will help mitigate any future talent dearths. AI and big data are projected to become the third-highest priority for corporate training by 2027. Those companies that prioritise resource investment here and now will reap the rewards in the future. The EU AI Act has motivated a lot of L&D policy development across Europe, and other regions should follow suit, including the UK.”
Methodology
The fastest-growing skills of 2025 are identified through a comparative evaluation of Coursera enterprise learner enrolments throughout 2024. Out of 1,000+ granular skills catalogued in the Coursera taxonomy, the fastest-growing skills are those that have seen the biggest increase in their overall enrolment ranking in this period and are expected to continue to grow or stay popular in 2025.
About Coursera
Coursera was launched in 2012 by Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, with a mission to provide universal access to world-class learning. It is now one of the largest online learning platforms in the world, with 162 million registered learners as of September 30, 2024. Coursera partners with over 350 leading universities and industry leaders to offer a broad catalog of content and credentials, including courses, Specializations, Professional Certificates, and degrees. Coursera’s platform innovations enable instructors to deliver scalable, personalized, and verified learning experiences to their learners. Institutions worldwide rely on Coursera to upskill and reskill their employees, citizens, and students in high-demand fields such as GenAI, data science, technology, and business. Coursera is a Delaware public benefit corporation and a B Corp.
