Demand for GenAI skills rises in India with 2.6 million Coursera learners

Logs 2.6 million enrolments as it rises to second spot after US

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India is witnessing a surge in demand for generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) skills, with Coursera recording over 2.6 million course enrolments in the category so far in 2025 — averaging one every 30 seconds — according to Marni Baker Stein, chief content officer at the global digital education platform.

 

Most of these learners are freshers enrolling in fundamental courses that teach the basics of AI and GenAI. Those looking to reskill or upskill are signing up for courses covering the fundamentals of AI and machine learning, design basics, GenAI use cases for software development, and coding in various languages, Stein said. With 29 million learners enrolled on the platform, India continues to be Coursera’s second-largest market after the US, Stein said, adding that nearly 70 per cent of these learners are men, while 30 per cent are women. 

“There has been a 290 per cent growth in the number of women learners on the platform, which is encouraging, but we would still like to see that ratio between men and women improve,” she said.

 

In India, Coursera has partnered 18 universities, including the Indian Institutes of Technology at Guwahati, Bombay, and Roorkee; the Indian Institutes of Management at Calcutta, Indore, and Ahmedabad; as well as the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, among others.

 

For industrial training, the online educational content provider has also recently tied up with enterprise AI firm Fractal Analytics, Stein said. Under the partnership, Fractal will offer 26 courses and five specialisations, including week-long microlearning programmes on responsible AI in the era of GenAI, she added.

 

Fractal will also curate specialised, industry-driven courses for the platform, drawing on its consulting experience with other companies, Stein said. The firm’s hands-on approach is also enabling it to rapidly update course content based on industry feedback.

 

The Coach feature of Coursera, an AI-powered feedback tool for learners, has seen a total of 3.7 million messages exchanged in India since its launch in September 2024, Stein said, adding that more than 400,000 users interact with the assistant regularly. 

 

“So, if learners are having a problem, they can talk to Coach about how the course applies to their job or how they can apply it in their life. What is interesting is that learners who interact with Coach tend to persist longer and finish the course. Women and learners with a weaker academic background are more likely to interact with Coach,” she said.