2024’s Rising Content and Fastest Growing Skills for 2025

Every 10 seconds, someone enrolls in GenAI content on Coursera

By Marni Baker Stein, Chief Content Officer, Coursera

As 2024 concludes, two major trends stand out: demand for GenAI learning has exceeded that of any skill we’ve ever seen on Coursera, and learners are increasingly opting for role-focused content to prepare for specific jobs. 

2024 by the numbers

• 162 million learners worldwide on Coursera, including 20 million new learners
• 25 new partners, including Amazon, Adobe, Real Madrid Universidad Europea, and Saïd Business School – University of Oxford and Xbox.
• 1,300+ new courses, Specializations, or certificates
• 36.7 million enrollments
• 1.8 million enrollments in AI-translated content
• 1.7 million learners using Coursera Coach to improve their learning experience

Trending courses and certificates in 2024 

For the first time, a GenAI course ranks as the most popular of the year. Forty percent of 2024’s top courses teach AI, cementing it as a must-have skill for all workers.

This year, Google has reached a new milestone by securing all five top slots, reflecting the growing  demand to learn entry-level skills from the industry leader.

Amid these shifts, perennial favorites, including finance and language, remain in high demand. 

1. NEW! Google AI Essentials (Google)
2. Foundations: Data, Data, Everywhere (Google) 
3. Foundations of Project Management (Google)
4. Foundations of Cybersecurity (Google)
5. Foundations of Digital Marketing and E-commerce (Google)
6. NEW! AI For Everyone (DeepLearning.AI)
7. NEW! Python for Data Science, AI & Development (IBM)
8. Financial Markets (Yale University) 
9. NEW! Generative AI for Everyone (DeepLearning.AI)
10. English for Career Development (University of Pennsylvania)

Micro-credentials gain traction as skills-first hiring grows

In early 2024, more than half of job listings in the US omitted formal education requirements, and in late November, the U.S. Department of Labor published a skills-first hiring guide. As demand for alternative credentials rose, there were over 3.3 million enrollments in entry-level Professional Certificates this year. 

We also added 25 entry-level certificates in 2024, growing our catalog by a record-breaking 33%. New certificates from Adobe, ADP, Amazon, Epic Games, IBM, and Microsoft broaden the career options learners can prepare for on Coursera and include game design, graphic design, sales and more.

The top five new entry-level Professional Certificates in 2024 are:

1. IBM Product Manager (IBM)
2. Microsoft Project Management (Microsoft)
3. Unilever Supply Chain Data Analyst (Unilever)
4. Unilever Digital Marketing Analyst (Unilever)
5. Microsoft UX Design (Microsoft)

GenAI moves from awareness to action 

In 2023, early adopters flocked to GenAI, with about one person a minute enrolling in a GenAI course. This year, as GenAI has become a must-have skill across industries, that grew to six enrollments every minute, totalling 3 million new enrollments in 2024. 

We also see a change in what people want to learn. Last year, the top GenAI courses focused on understanding the fundamentals of GenAI and large language models. This year, interest shifted to applying GenAI at work.

To meet this demand, our partners added 450+ new GenAI courses, averaging about one new GenAI course a day. Leading AI companies, including Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and NVIDIA, developed these courses to equip learners around the globe with this critical skill.

These are the top five new GenAI courses in 2024: 

1. Google AI Essentials (Google)
2. Generative AI for Executives and Business Leaders – Part 1 (IBM)
3. Introduction to Generative AI for Software Development (DeepLearning.AI)
4. Microsoft 365 Copilot: Personal Productivity for All (Vanderbilt University)
5. Accelerate Your Learning with ChatGPT (Deep Teaching Solutions)

2025 Fastest-Growing Skills

By analyzing course enrollments in 2023 and 2024 and identifying which of 1,000 skills have seen the biggest rank increase, we can determine which skills will remain in-demand in 2025.

Job postings mentioning GenAI have grown more than 4x in 2024, while 49% of non-job seekers see the value of AI upskilling. Amid AI adoption, soft skills are becoming increasingly important. Curiosity debuts as the first human skill on our list, while professionalism and telecommunication skills both saw enrollments increase by 80%. 

1. Prompt engineering
2. Applied GenAI
3. Data analysis
4. Cybersecurity
5. Business optimization
6. Risk management
7. WordPress
8. Linux
9. Software documentation
10. Curiosity

Learn all the most in-demand skills in 2025 by enrolling in Coursera Plus, which includes unlimited access to over 7,000 courses, projects, and certificates.