New Udemy AI Features Set to Boost Learner Engagement and Create Organizational Skills Agility

New Udemy AI features will help learners upskill and reskill faster while allowing organizations to create scaled, skills-based learning programs in half the time: The Udemy AI Assistant and Skills Mapping and AI-powered learning paths. These new features will also benefit the several thousand top-rated Udemy instructors who teach on the platform, helping them reduce the amount of time they spend on routine tasks so that they can focus on creating impactful content for learners. 

AI adoption is surging, with 72% of companies using it in at least one business function in 2024. Underlying this growth is the rise of generative AI, a subset of AI that helps workforces become more productive by automating tedious tasks that get in the way of innovation. As leaders attempt to keep their workforces agile in the face of ever-evolving skills like GenAI, the importance of becoming a skills-based organization becomes more apparent. At Udemy, we’re excited to support learners and learning leaders alike through new features that capitalize on the GenAI opportunity and help organizations more quickly deliver on their business objectives. 

The Udemy AI Assistant bolsters skills comprehension

Powered by the content of top-rated English courses on Udemy Business, the AI Assistant uses a large language model (LLM) with the ability to understand natural dialogue to help improve content matching and learner comprehension. 

With the new Udemy AI Assistant, learners can quickly find the right courses that meet their needs and receive instant support, building upon the guidance provided by instructors, who remain available for questions. The AI Assistant complements this by offering immediate responses.

Acting as an ever-present learning companion, the Udemy AI Assistant offers real-time guidance when learning on Udemy. Some of its core use cases include:

• Finding a course or lecture based on learning objectives, role, skill level, or time constraints.
• Identifying which skills a learner should prioritize when working towards a certification. 
• Providing course and lecture summaries to help learners understand key concepts and navigate to the most relevant content quickly.
• Answering course and career-related questions with step-by-step advice, simple explanations of complex topics, and more.
• For tech learners, the Udemy AI Assistant offers easy-to-copy coding examples and helps with debugging, speeding up both learning and development.

The Udemy AI Assistant is accessible to all Udemy Business customers who have accepted Udemy’s GenerativeAI terms. Once customers accept terms, it pulls from and is directly embedded in all Udemy Business courses of instructors who have opted into the Udemy Instructor GenAI policy. When taking one of these courses, the Udemy AI Assistant will automatically appear on the right side of the screen for learners to interact with as they progress through the course.

Skills Mapping and AI-powered learning paths help leaders build effective programs quickly 

Organizations are recognizing that to keep up with the pace of change, they need to adopt a dynamic approach to employee skills development. These skills-based organizations define the skills employees need to reach business goals and build scaled learning programs tailored to team and functional roles.

Skills mapping is a crucial step towards becoming an agile, skills-based organization. A recent Udemy survey report found that 84% of respondents reported that their companies have started considering how to implement skills-based talent management processes, with 75% reporting that their company has already implemented at least one process.

Before AI, establishing a framework of important skills for the organization was a manual and time-consuming process for learning teams. But, with the new Skills Mapping and AI-powered learning paths feature, Udemy Business customers can use AI to quickly and precisely:

• Identify critical skills for your organization, ensuring teams focus on the most important competencies for success.
• Easily create a skills framework, or “skills tree,” providing a clear, logical structure for skill development across the organization.
• Seamlessly match top-rated course content from the Udemy Business collection to your skills framework, ensuring training aligns with your organizational goals.
• Scale learning paths across your organization and teams to drive growth and performance.

Learning leaders and administrators can work with Udemy AI to optimize the recommended skills frameworks and learning paths so that the most relevant courses and lessons populate for learners. This level of personalization allows learners to focus on what matters most and have the context needed to create a strong foundation for skills acquisition. 

All Udemy Business customers who have opted into Udemy Business GenAI Additional Terms now have access to Skills Mapping and AI-powered learning paths in beta. Udemy Business Enterprise Plan customers can access this feature at no additional cost until at least July 1, 2025. 

Unlock new learning heights with GenAI

For companies to compete in a growing world of skills-based organizations, ongoing skills development of employees is essential. With the new Udemy AI features, leaders can take their learning programs to new levels by creating personalized experiences more quickly and efficiently than ever before. With GenAI lending a hand in identifying skills needs and building tailored learning paths, organizational admins can get their employees on the fast track to skills acquisition. When learners tap into the Udemy AI Assistant, they ensure their time spent learning results in meaningful outcomes for their professional development and the long-term success of their companies.

For more information on the new suite of AI learning features on Udemy Business, see the future of GenAI and Udemy.