AI is now the fastest-growing skill among employees, job seekers, and students in the UK and globally, new research from online learning platform Coursera has found.

To keep pace with evolving labour market demands, learners are embracing AI skills at a rapidly-accelerating rate. Course enrollments in this domain have increased 866% year-over-year, the learning platform found in their Job Skills Report 2025.

The report drew on insights from over five million learners who accessed Coursera through a university, business, or government partner.

Generative AI Interest Surges

Generative AI is now the fastest-growing skill among employees, students, and job seekers. In the UK, generative AI was the top skill overall, with ‘Google AI Essentials’ the most popular course taken on Coursera’s platform by British learners – which represent 4.2 million of Coursera’s 162 million learners.

‘AI for Everyone’ and ‘Supervised Machine Learning’ were also amongst the top 10 courses taken by UK learners. Notably, more than half (54%) of GenAI course enrolments come from learners in India, Colombia, and Mexico, signalling a shift in the globalization of AI talent and their availability in emerging markets.

Women Under a Third of Enrolments

Whilst AI skills surge globally, only 28% of Coursera’s GenAI course enrolments are from women.

This is particularly concerning given 79% of working women—compared with 58% of working men—are employed in occupations susceptible to generative AI disruption.

“When you look at the tech landscape today, it is clear that the gender gap remains pronounced. The gender gap in STEM has long been a problem, and now it’s becoming increasingly apparent in the field of AI” said Marni Baker-Stein, chief content officer at Coursera.

“With only 22% of AI and data science professionals being women, the gender gap is a significant barrier that has consequences for both social equity, and the overall effectiveness of AI technology.

“Women cannot afford to be excluded from the global AI upskilling revolution. Encouraging women to pursue AI skills through educational initiatives and workplace policies will be crucial to narrowing the gender gap and ensuring AI benefits everyone.”

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Prompt Engineering Skills Also Vital

With 22% of recruiting professionals updating job descriptions to reflect the use of GenAI, courses like Prompt Engineering for ChatGPT and Generative AI: Prompt Engineering Basics rank among the top 5 GenAI courses taken by students and job seekers.

These skills are essential for effectively using AI tools in diverse professional contexts, making prompt engineering a critical competency for staying competitive in an AI-driven job market.

Nikolaz Foucaud, managing director EMEA, Coursera commented: “The announcement of Starmer’s AI action plan to “mainline AI into the veins” of the UK has put serious weight behind Britain’s AI ambitions.

“But turning this vision into reality hinges on a fundamental reimagining of our educational landscape and how we prepare our workforce for an AI-driven future.”

“While AI is now the fastest-growing skill among employees, job seekers and students in the UK and globally, with course enrollments on Coursera in this domain having increased 866% year-over-year, there are challenges developing around gender divides and knowledge gaps.

“Only 28% of courses were taken by women overall in 2024, creating an urgent need to address gendered disparities within the AI workforce.

“On top of this, systemic issues are coming from lack of policy in higher education, as according to Coursera’s independent research published recently, less than half (48%) of educators say their university has a policy in place to manage it, while almost two-thirds (62%) say higher education is unprepared to handle AI usage.

“With the government’s plans to supercharge the economy through AI, it’s clear that proper skilling and strategy needs to be tackled first.

“If there isn’t a level playing field in terms of access to learning and development across men and women, and also obstacles for students in higher education to develop job-ready skills for AI, then the UK will be on the backfoot when it comes to capitalising on emerging technologies.”