Here are the fastest-growing AI skills, according to Coursera

Leaders in the HR tech industry talk a lot about two things right now: skills and AI. Often, chatter is aimed at how these themes collide. But what exactly are AI skills? Like, what in the heck do people need to know to be proficient in this area?

Playing around with Bing Copilot (the image creator is super fun; see below) isn’t really a competency. So, what is an AI skill? To answer this question, I went to a trusted learning source.

Data from 5 million learners

The Job Skills Report 2024 from online, job-relevant learning provider Coursera is based on insights from 5 million enterprise learners at 3,000 businesses, 3,600 higher education institutions and governments in over 100 countries. To determine what the fastest-growing AI skills will be this year, Coursera analyzed enrollments from 2022 to 2023. These competencies, notes the report, are anticipated to sustain popularity throughout 2024.

The assessment focused on around 300 specific skills in Coursera’s taxonomy, identifying those with the most significant rise in enrollment ranking.

Here are the fastest-growing AI skills, according to Coursera:

• Reinforcement learning: Develop a well-rounded machine learning model with reinforcement learning
• Bayesian network: Understand the relationships between random variables and causal probabilities
• Problem-solving: Tackle and overcome challenges with logic
• Big data: Process, generate and analyze the largest datasets
• Deep learning: Use machine learning to analyze huge amounts of data

The learning company’s 800 AI-related study offerings have claimed 6.8 million-plus enrollments, with Generative AI for Everyone, a three-module, six-hour course designed by machine learning pioneer and Coursera co-founder Dr. Andrew Ng, ranking as the fastest-growing course in 2023.

Now, on to the news …

HR tech in action

Known for recognition and engagement software, Assembly recently announced Dora AI. This AI-powered assistant can dig through documents housed on a company’s internet and connected platforms like Google Docs and Dropbox. This will save employees a trip through the handbook and other lengthy documents, which seems like one of the most relieving use cases for AI in my book.

Salary.com (maker of CompAnalyst® Pay Equity Suite, an HRE 2023 Top Product) recently announced a partnership with UKG, granting UKG customers access to Salary.com data, market insights and tools. Kevin Plunkett, senior vice president of partnerships at Salary.com, points out in a release that this will support employer strides toward pay transparency and fair pay.

On-demand pay solution DailyPay this week announced the close of a $75 million equity round and $100 million expanded credit capacity provided by Citi. This comes as the company adds clients and users and “reflects the size, scale and trajectory of the business,” according to Ken Brause, CFO of Daily Pay.

More from HRE

International M&A advisor Goldenhill predicts that dominant HR trends are “becoming a catalyst for a notable increase in merger and acquisition activity within the HR tech space.” Find out more about these influences.

Discover why L&D is key to success as organizations adopt a skills-based structure and mindset. Dani Johnson of RedThread Research will cover this topic at the HR Technology Conference Virtual. Get your free ticket.

Top HR leaders have the platforms and tools available to eliminate the guesswork and to show the tangible impact of initiatives. Learn how the top 5% of strategic HR leaders use data to prioritize their most important work.