The lack of AI training has been a recurring theme ever since generative AI debuted. Simply providing access to generative AI capabilities, regardless of the platform, does not automatically translate to improved productivity, efficiency or revenue increases. In fact, employees may resent the introduction of AI because they feel that they’re training their replacement or will be required to do more because they now have AI superpowers.

Released in January, Coursera’s Job Skills Report 2026 found that across all the company’s surveyed enterprise learners, enrollments in Gen AI have increased by 234% year-over-year. Enrollments in critical thinking skills courses were up 185% year-over-year; this category includes skills around “logically analyzing information, arguments and situations to form a reasoned judgment or solve a problem” — skills people need to discern LLM-generated fact from fiction.

No Jitter spoke with Anthony Salcito, General Manager of Enterprise at Coursera about his company’s efforts in helping organizations develop AI, as well as skills that help people use AI.

No Jitter (NJ): What AI-related skills are organizations looking to develop in their employees?

Anthony Salcito (Salcito): A lot of organizations that we see are trying to be AI ready or embrace AI transformation. They often put a tech-focused first approach where they evaluate LLMs and create a broader rhetoric inside organizations about being AI nimble. They often don’t prioritize the skill transformation on their people, which is across all knowledge workers. It’s not just technology folks, it’s senior leaders, managers and obviously individuals.

One of the things we’ve done is launched verified skills. So, you could say, I want to get Gen AI ready or be able to do retrieval augmented generation, etc. Not only will you have the content within Coursera, but you can verify that skill based on our rigorous assessment throughout [that course]. The organization can track [what employees] earned and [if they’ve] developed the skill that [they’re] looking for.

That’s certainly a trend that we’re seeing across enterprises, as they start to become more skills based for hiring, as opposed to just career history based. One of the things organizations are looking for are people coming in with foundational skills. Micro credentials help with that.

We’re hearing our employers say that micro credentials help remove ramp time, and it’s something that they value. Over 90% of employers are giving us this feedback, so that’s a big part of the value that we provide to organizations.

NJ: Who is typically in charge of AI training?

Salcito: This is often driven by a chief learning officer inside an organization or folks in the Learning and Development [L&D] department. Increasingly, we’re seeing business leaders start to think about this, because they’re seeing skills as one of the big gaps for transformation. We’re hearing more and more that organizations are recognizing, hey, we’ve invested in things like AI and it hasn’t shown an ROI, partly because they weren’t ready for skills.

And we’re starting to see business leaders step in a little bit more, because of the pace of change for an L&D department in a large organization isn’t moving fast enough. And obviously mid-size and small organizations don’t have L&D departments, so this is often delivered and adjusted by a senior IT leader, a CEO or line of business leader directly.

NJ: What types of skills are organizations investing in?

Salcito: One of the largest obvious areas of growth for enterprise learners is Gen AI. Across organizations we saw a 234% year over year growth, as you would expect for Gen AI skills. And we see significant growth in things like software and product development, cyber security and data science.

There’s also a significant corollary to the rise in these tech skills with an expansion of human skills. 

For our Data learners, there’s 168% year over year increase in [developing skills] like critical thinking. We see things like leadership and communication skills, grow significantly year over year, and I think it reflects what most people are looking for, with regards to an AI workforce, that people have those human capabilities to use the autonomy and entrepreneurship that AI is enabling more effectively.

It’s not just about learning AI, [but about having] the foundation to think differently, to push for change, to think about solving challenges in new ways with a new set of technology capabilities.

NJ: What are your thoughts on the push to rollout AI tools without also providing training?

Salcito: There’s been a lot of discussion around this — putting AI platforms in place without the skilling behind it. You may [end up having] what could be a more glorified search engine and really not thinking differently about how you can take advantage of these tools. It’s a huge priority for why our enterprise customers come to Coursera.

I do think the human connection is super important, because in this AI age with [models] changing and pivoting in terms of capabilities, I want a workforce that is always learning and building that lifelong connection to learning and scaling. And then I want more agency for my employees. I want them to be able to do more, think differently and feel more empowered.

But that doesn’t happen if you just roll out ChatGPT to your organization. Many leaders are seeing that AI just doesn’t change an organization alone. You have to really push a skills-based focus to drive change.

NJ: Have you encountered employee resistance to AI training?

Salcito: I think the resistance has been either lack of clarity or employees who haven’t seen the connection between skilling and their career advancement. But when it’s done right, there’s tremendous enthusiasm from learners.

Employees are increasingly recognizing that these courses are helpful for them in their career, and having these skills are important. In some of our rollouts, you get lower utilization because people don’t think it’s relevant for them, and that’s one of the reasons why we work with organizations to make sure that there’s role alignment with regards to skilling.

The better organizations are typically creating a culture where the time and the value of these skills, are recognized and celebrated.

NJ: Do you find that organizations give employees the time it takes to take courses?

Salcito: The best organizations create this culture inside the organization. They are putting time in calendar where they’re encouraging employees to block off time for skilling, as well as creating that sort of downstream expectation for leaders to empower their teams to get skilled.

NJ: What kind of outcomes are expected from leadership once employees have gone through training?

Salcito: We like move beyond course completion and certifications, etc., to actual, real business impact. What are you trying to do? Are you trying to be more efficient, save money, create lines of business workflow to increase profits or sales or whatever the department is. That’s often harder for us to determine, because while we can measure what’s happening in our platform, [we can’t] measure the impact on the business.

But I can tell you that the decision makers are increasingly focused not on the actual skilling output, but on what it means to their bottom line. They’re going to a skills platform because they see skilling as a gap and one of the things they say is, “Hey, we’re not going to be able to achieve on this investment or our environment without investing here.”



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