Coursera unveiled its annual learner trends for India, based on insights from over 27 million registered learners. This year, India surpassed Europe in the total number of learners on Coursera, highlighting the ambition and commitment of Indian learners to upskill and stay competitive in a rapidly evolving global workforce. Two key trends emerged in 2024: unprecedented demand for GenAI learning and a growing preference for role-specific content to prepare for specific jobs.
According to Microsoft’s Work Trend Index 2024, AI skills have become a top hiring priority for Indian leaders – 75% stated they wouldn’t hire candidates lacking AI skills, and 80% would prefer less experienced candidates with AI skills over more experienced ones without them. Reflecting this shift, 60% of India’s top courses this year focused on AI and ML, cementing their position as must-have skills for professionals across industries.
In 2024, Coursera recorded a 4x increase in GenAI enrollments in India, totaling 1.1 million to date – the highest globally, followed by the US. On average, learners enrolled in GenAI content every minute – an impressive jump from one enrollment every three minutes in 2023. While foundational GenAI courses remained popular, the focus shifted to applying GenAI at work, signaling a maturing interest in practical applications of the technology.
Beyond AI, Indian learners continued to pursue perennial favorites like finance, project management, and data analytics, underscoring the importance of versatile skills in today’s dynamic job market. Entry-level Professional Certificates, which require no prior experience or college degree, also saw a rise in uptake. Several NSQF-aligned certificates, including Google Data Analytics, Google Project Management, IBM Data Science, and Google UX Design, ranked among the top 10 in India.
“Indian learners embraced the future of work in 2024, prioritising GenAI and job-aligned, mission-critical skills to stay competitive in an evolving job market. Their progress amidst GenAI’s disruption shows their resilience, adaptability, and drive to lead on a global stage,” said Raghav Gupta, Managing Director, India and Asia Pacific, Coursera. “In 2025, we expect the global race toward AI literacy to further accelerate, and we remain committed to empowering Indian learners with accessible and transformative education for success in the AI-powered world.”
Preliminary insights from Coursera’s Job Skills Report 2025 indicate that Indian enterprise learner efforts align closely with broader learner trends. GenAI skills were the most sought after by Indian learners, followed by Cybersecurity, Risk management and Mitigation, and HR technology, emphasising the efforts being made to build resilient, future-ready workplaces. These findings highlight the growing synergy between upskilling initiatives driven by Indian institutions and global workforce requirements.