Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO of Coursera, informed the 54th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) that much of the growth his ed-tech platform experienced during 2023 is owed to the ubiquity of AI technologies, in particular ChatGPT. With a portfolio of some 800 courses, Coursera enrolled over 7.4 million students, at a rate of approximately one user per minute, in pursuit of at least one AI course in 2023. 

Besides courses, the ed-tech platform also uses AI technology as a personal tutor to students through the chatbot, 'Coach', and to translate over 4000 courses into different languages. When asked whether the company plans to create its version of the AI chatbot, CEO Maggioncalda noted that the company's main plans in AI are to fine-tune existing large language models with proprietary data and increase hires for AI jobs.

Why does it matter?

Coursera's experience is pivotal to calming fears in the industry as educators and education institutions grapple with existential woes in the wake of the AI technologies boom. Coursera illustrates how the two sectors can work together to upskill the global population and create jobs.