India leads globally in AI upskilling, says Udemy's Caoimhe Carlos

She says that the firm will hire its India head of customer success, ramp up the R&D centre to strengthen Udemy's core platform and build more AI features into its platform

This report has been updated  The year 2025 will be an important one for Udemy in India. Caoimhe Carlos, vice-president of global customer success at Udemy, during her first-ever visit to the country, says that the company will hire its India head of customer success, expand its research and development (R&D) centre to enhance Udemy’s core platform, and add more artificial intelligence (AI) features. In a meeting in Mumbai, Carlos discusses with Shivani Shinde the trends in upskilling, the Indian market, and how Indian organisations are innovating. Edited excerpts:

 

What are some of the trends you see globally in upskilling and reskilling, and how is the Indian market different?

 

The past three years have been dominated by technology upskilling, particularly focused on generative AI (GenAI). We enrol eight people every minute in a GenAI course on our platform. The demand has been unprecedented. Over the past 12 months, however, we’ve noticed a shift in how GenAI is being consumed. Two years ago, the focus was on building large language models, understanding the technology, and engaging in deep technical upskilling. Now, the trend — true for India as well — shows that employees are increasingly figuring out how to use GenAI in their day-to-day jobs to improve productivity. India leads globally in AI upskilling. The demand for GenAI technology skills here is enormous.

 

Another trend complementing this is the rising demand for soft skills or more human-centric skills. Surprisingly, we’ve seen an increased demand for skills such as communication, critical thinking, and creativity. We conducted external research and found that corporate learners and employees are actively focusing on human skills to gain a competitive edge in a technologically driven world. While these are global trends, they hold for India as well.

 

The rise in demand for soft skills can also be attributed to the influx of GenZ into the workforce. Many of them completed their studies during the pandemic or started their first jobs then, so they haven’t had the same opportunities to hone their soft skills as their predecessors did.

 

How are enterprises dealing with the AI upskilling phenomenon?

 

On a strategic level, organisations are grappling with how to address urgent skill gaps in their workforce to keep up with rapid technological changes. McKinsey has noted that the half-life of many skills has shortened from four years to just two and a half years. This means that the skills employees are trained in now may become obsolete by the time the training is fully implemented.

 

Most large enterprises are now trying to keep up with this change. They need to continuously upskill employees as new technologies emerge. This is perhaps the first technology trend where organisations are skilling nearly every employee simultaneously. We’ve never seen this before.

 

How big is the Indian market for Udemy, and how is India different from other geographies?

 

India is the only market where I never have to address low adoption rates. The appetite for learning here is incredible, especially among corporate employees. People are highly focused on acquiring skills that will help them succeed in their roles and advance their careers.

 

In terms of usage and adoption, India is no. 1 globally for Udemy. In terms of size and volume, it ranks second. Our total user base in India is 16 million as of September 30, 2024, and it continues to grow steadily.

 

Unlike other educational technology platforms, Udemy operates as a marketplace, connecting experts with learners at scale. We have 75,000 instructors teaching on our platform and 73 million learners across 180 countries, including both corporate and individual users. We’ve reached about 1 billion course enrolments so far.

 

Interestingly, thousands of our instructors are from India. Many learners here also prefer accessing technological skills in local languages. Currently, we offer 250 courses in 75 languages including Hindi specifically for our enterprise clients.

 

Udemy set up its first R&D centre in India. What will be the focus?

 

It is an engineering centre for us that helps innovate additional functionality into our platforms. This will enable us to upskill, reskill, and validate skills efficiently for our enterprise clients. We have around 30 people in Chennai and plan to ramp up.

 

What will be some of your focus areas in 2025 for India?

 

First, we plan to hire our first head of customer success. We see India as one of the most innovative markets. A lot of innovation is coming out of Indian organisations that we can learn from and deploy globally. One area we are focusing on for next year is building our own AI capabilities. We are launching two new AI features — one is an AI learning assistant to help learners, and the other is AI skills mapping functionality. Assessment will be another focus area.