Greg Hart's product playbook: building AI-driven learning that ships outcomes
When Greg Hart took over as CEO in February 2025, Coursera already had scale. What he's added is product velocity and a sharper focus on outcomes. The company raised its 2025 revenue outlook twice (now 8-9% year over year) after projecting 4% in April. That momentum tracks to a simple idea: make learning feel interactive, practical, and tied to real jobs.
For product leaders, this is a live case study in shipping AI features that matter, instrumenting the right metrics, and aligning the experience to career progress instead of clicks.
From voice assistants to AI tutors inside the course
Hart's background building Alexa and scaling Prime Video shows up in how Coursera uses AI. The AI tutor, Coursera Coach, is now available on 97% of courses. Two recent upgrades explain why engagement is climbing.
- Coach Dialogues: instructors can drop the tutor directly into the learning flow for one-on-one, Socratic prompts.
- Role Play: 60 scenarios where learners practice with Coach as the counterpart (e.g., pitch a product, get instant feedback). It turns theory into reps, without scheduling workshops.
Local-first scaling: translation and dubbing
More than half of Coursera's catalog now supports up to 26 languages in text. Arabic is a major push: 2,000 additional Arabic-translated courses are slated for Q1 2026.
Video is catching up fast. Coursera has enabled AI dubbing on about 600 courses and plans Arabic dubbing in 2026, syncing translated audio with the instructor's lip movements for a natural experience.
The genAI surge (and why it matters for your roadmap)
Learner demand is a tailwind. Coursera lists 12,100+ courses, including 2,300+ on AI and 1,100 on genAI. Globally, genAI enrollments are running at 14 per minute, up from eight a year ago and one per minute in 2023. That's not hype-those are usage curves you can design around.
In the UAE, Coursera counts 1.46 million registered learners, up 23% year over year, with one genAI enrollment roughly every seven minutes. Interest outside AI remains strong in data, business, and project management-useful signal for portfolio planning.
Distribution by design: partnerships where users already learn
Coursera was an early partner in the OpenAI app ecosystem, allowing ChatGPT to surface relevant courses and preview videos in the chat experience. Meeting users in-flow beats waiting for them to come back to your app.
New content partnerships include Anthropic for specialisations on safe, effective genAI use. On the public sector side, Coursera is working with the Dubai Police Force, Ajman University, the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Foundation (with UNDP), and multiple Saudi institutions and programs.
Personalisation that learns from every interaction
Onboarding asks for a learner's current job and career objective. That sets relevance on day one. The longer-term bet: keep learning from every Coach interaction to tune recommendations continuously.
Hart's goal is straightforward: Coach as a tutor inside each course and a career advisor across your entire learning arc. It's not finished, but the direction is clear-less generic catalog browsing, more guidance tied to outcomes.
Mapping learning to jobs: Skills Tracks and Course Builder
Launched globally in September, Skills Tracks curate the catalog using the Coursera Career Graph. It maps occupations, roles, levels, and skills (with data from sources like Lightcast) to the specific courses that teach them. The first four tracks cover data, IT, genAI, and software/product development, each spanning roughly 500-1,200 courses.
Enterprises can go further with Course Builder (launched in 2023), an AI tool to assemble custom paths in under a day by mixing Coursera content with internal materials. The endgame: verified assessments and credentials that employers recognise. In the UAE, 97% of employers consider micro-credentials in hiring decisions.
Engagement and completion: what's moving the needle
Completion rates vary, but Professional Certificates lead because the credential has real value in the job market. Coursera also reports higher completion among Coach users; 60% say it helps with their career. The team is leaning into between-session nudges that remind learners of progress and goals-simple behavioral design done well.
Where growth is coming from
The Middle East is a priority, driven by national visions like UAE 2031 and Saudi's Vision 2030. India is another huge opportunity-up to 40% of degree credits can be taken online. Southeast Asia shows similar patterns, with Vietnam allowing up to 30% online credits. For universities, Coursera helps serve more students without adding buildings.
Product lessons you can apply this quarter
- Ship AI where it reduces friction in the core experience (feedback, practice, translation), not as a separate surface.
- Integrate distribution into existing user workflows (e.g., recommendations inside ChatGPT).
- Tie learning to jobs, roles, and skills with a data-backed graph; curate aggressively.
- Design practice modes that simulate real work (Role Play) and return instant, actionable feedback.
- Make personalisation continuous; let every interaction update the model of user intent.
- Instrument for outcomes: completion, credential attainment, internal mobility, and time to first application at work.
- Localise at scale with translation and dubbing-ship content where your users are.
If you're planning your team's upskilling stack, browse high-signal learning paths by job or skill here: Courses by job and Courses by skill.
In numbers: Coursera at a glance
- Global platform: 191+ million registered learners (as of Sep 2025); 12,100+ courses; 2,300+ AI courses (1,100 genAI); 375+ university and industry partners; 14 genAI enrollments per minute globally.
- UAE: 1.46 million registered learners (23%+ YoY); one genAI enrollment every seven minutes; strong interest in AI, data, business, project management.
- AI innovation: Coach on 97% of courses; 600 courses with AI dubbing; 2,000 more Arabic-translated courses coming in Q1 2026; content in up to 26 languages.
- Financials: 2025 revenue guidance: 8-9% growth; Q1 2025 revenue: $179.3m (6%+ YoY); positive free cash flow over $25m in Q1 2025.
Bottom line for product teams: Coursera is shipping AI where it creates learner value, connecting content to career progress, and building distribution through partnerships. That mix-useful AI, job-aligned curation, and smart go-to-market-is what's fueling its next stage.
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