Coursera Introduces a Business Guide for Acquiring Skills in Generative AI

IBL News | New York

Coursera, which provides learning pathways to upskill users, introduced this month a business guide for acquiring skills in Generative AI. [PDF download]

This guide, titled “The Business Leader’s Playbook to Generative AI Skills Training”, features insights from leaders at Microsoft, Vanderbilt University, and Coursera.

“GenAI is a top priority for business leaders, as it promises to transform workforce productivity,” states the report.

“GenAI isn’t just a learning initiative. It’s a company and culture initiative that can supercharge talent and productivity.”

Elisa Graceffo, General Manager, Technical Content, Worldwide Learning at Microsoft, said: “AI is coming to your job; it’s not coming for your job.”

“If we can do our work more productively and focus on higher-level tasks that drive more value, then we have happier employees and more successful teams. We can reach company goals faster,” explained Trena Minudri, VP & Chief Learning Officer at Coursera.

“Employees might feel empowered to experiment and bring innovation to their discipline.”

Currently, Coursera hosts more than 35 GenAI-related courses from institutions like Microsoft, Stanford, Google Cloud, IBM, AWS, and Vanderbilt University, which have accumulated more than 570,000 enrollments.

In an effort to improve productivity, Coursera’s own employees are actively learning with the company’s GenAI Academy how to use GenAI for their roles.

According to Coursera, 89% of executives listed AI and GenAI as one of their top three tech priorities for 2024—yet two out of three (66%) executives are ambivalent or outright dissatisfied with their organization’s progress on AI/GenAI so far, citing a lack of talent and skills (62%) as their primary reason for dissatisfaction.

“This dissonance makes sense because only 19% of HR and L&D leaders are ranking AI as a top priority for them. Mindset shifts and individual AI upskilling need to happen—and fast—so that they can meet this major inflection point in the history of technology.”

“At the company level, when infused into the culture at large, GenAI can unify a company. It’s something everyone in the organization can learn, at the same time, whether it’s your financial analysts, marketing reps, sales leaders, C-suite, or software engineers. Everyone can benefit from prompt engineering and other foundational GenAI skills.”

“Move too fast, and you can hit ethical and regulatory hurdles. Move too slow, and you’ll find yourself outpaced by your competitors,” added Coursera.