- Coursera accelerates growth under CEO Greg Hart, raising its 2025 revenue outlook to 8-9%.
- AI-led innovation, including Coursera Coach and multilingual learning, reshapes the platform’s offerings.
- Strong AI course demand and Middle East partnerships reinforce Coursera’s role in workforce transformation.
When Greg Hart took over as CEO of Coursera in February 2025, he stepped into a platform already serving nearly 170 million learners worldwide and carrying a clear mission to democratise access to education. What he brought with him, however, was deep experience in building large-scale, AI-powered consumer products, having led the launch of Amazon’s Alexa and the global expansion of Prime Video. Reflecting on his first year at the helm, Hart said the transition had been encouraging, noting that the company’s renewed focus on innovation was beginning to show tangible results.
Ten months into his tenure, Coursera’s financial performance has underscored that momentum. After initially projecting modest year-on-year revenue growth of 4 per cent in April 2025, the company has since raised its guidance twice. Speaking after the third-quarter earnings call, Hart said Coursera now expects full-year growth of between 8 and 9 per cent, an acceleration that stands out in an otherwise challenging edtech environment. He attributed this improvement to an intensified push on product development, particularly the use of artificial intelligence to create more engaging and outcome-driven learning experiences.
AI, Hart explained, is central to both Coursera’s content and its platform capabilities. Generative AI has been integrated across the platform since shortly after the launch of ChatGPT, with the most visible outcome being Coursera Coach, an AI-powered tutor now available across the vast majority of courses. Recent enhancements have deepened its impact. Hart said new features allow instructors to embed Coach directly into courses for one-on-one, dialogue-based learning, while role-play tools let learners practice real-world scenarios such as sales pitches and receive instant feedback.
Beyond pedagogy, Coursera is using AI to tackle one of the biggest barriers to global education: language. Hart said more than half of the platform’s courses are now available in up to 26 languages through AI translation. The Arabic-speaking market is a major focus, with 2,000 additional Arabic-translated courses set to roll out soon, followed by AI-powered dubbing that synchronises translated audio with instructors’ lip movements to create a natural viewing experience.
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Demand for AI education itself has surged. Hart noted that Coursera now offers thousands of AI-focused courses, with enrolments rising sharply year on year. This growth is particularly visible in the Middle East. The UAE alone has nearly 1.5 million registered learners on the platform, up 23 per cent year on year, with AI, data, business, and project management among the most popular areas.
Partnerships have played a critical role in this expansion. Hart highlighted collaborations with OpenAI, Anthropic, regional universities, and government institutions across the UAE and Saudi Arabia, many of which are aligned with national workforce transformation agendas. He said these partnerships ensure Coursera’s content remains relevant to real-world skills needs.
Looking ahead, Hart believes the platform’s evolution will go beyond individual courses. He envisions Coursera Coach developing into a continuous career companion, helping learners map skills to job opportunities and adapt as industries change. As AI reshapes the global economy, Hart said Coursera aims to position itself not just as a learning platform, but as essential infrastructure for lifelong learning and workforce readiness in the AI era.
