Trending Skills, Topics, Certifications and More – August 2026

Looking to stay ahead of the curve? When it comes to professional skills, certifications, tools, and technologies, Udemy is the first to know what’s trending. Check out these trends from August 2026.

The course-specific data in this article is limited to courses in English. All other data is global data (location-and-language-agnostic).

What are people searching for?

These queries saw the largest % month-over-month growth on Udemy (queries must meet minimum search volume threshold to qualify).

1. “frank kane” – Searches for this query grew by +129,531 month-over-month. Frank Kane is an instructor on Udemy. Frank Kane primarily teaches machine learning and AI, AWS, and data engineering.
2. “sql course“ – Searches for this query grew by +26,809 month-over-month. SQL (Structured Query Language) is the standard language for storing, retrieving, and analyzing data in relational databases, and it remains a core building block for analytics, backend work, and data engineering.
3. “video editing“ – Searches for this query grew by +6,866 month-over-month. Demand for “video editing” skills may be growing due to two overlapping markets: the 91% of businesses using video as a marketing tool¹, and the US influencer economy that is projected to hit $12.17 billion in creator payments in 2026².
4. “claude certified architect foundations“ – Searches for this query grew by +4,675 month-over-month. “claude certified architect foundations” is an Anthropic-issued, Claude-focused certification. This credential focuses on foundational Claude architecture skills, and is likely growing in demand due to its recent launch in March 2026.
5. “learn ai from basic“ – Searches for this query grew by +4,011 month-over-month. “learn ai from basic” relates to artificial intelligence. The specific phrasing of this query likely stems from Udemy’s autosuggest search feature, but is representative of demand for beginner AI skills. Specifically, core ideas, common tools, and first practical steps before more advanced model or agent work.

What are people learning about?

These topics saw the largest % month-over-month growth in demand (must meet demand minimum thresholds to qualify).

1. Math trend: “Discrete Math.” – Demand for this topic grew by 195.93% month-over-month. Discrete math is the branch of mathematics behind logic, counting, graphs, and proofs that power computer science, algorithms, and technical problem-solving. Learners are focusing on number sequences and recurrence, graph theory basics (trees, paths, coloring), combinatorics, number theory, and proof techniques.
2. Project Management trend: “PMI PMBOK.” – Demand for this topic grew by 92.59% month-over-month. Interest in PMI PMBOK may be growing due to PMI’s July 2026 PMP exam update, which refreshed the exam outline around how project managers lead work today³. Learners are focusing on PMP and CAPM exam prep, full-length mock exams, case and scenario questions, knowledge areas, and earning PDUs or contact hours.
3. IT & Software trend: “Oracle Primavera.” – Demand for this topic grew by 52.77% month-over-month. Oracle Primavera (especially P6) is professional project planning software used to schedule complex work, track progress, and manage risk on large projects. Learners are focusing on Primavera P6 scheduling, work breakdown structures, critical path method, resource and cost loading, baselines, earned value and S-curves, and building full construction or project schedules from scratch. 
4. Development trend: “LangGraph.” – Demand for this topic grew by 46.65% month-over-month. LangGraph is a framework for building reliable, stateful AI agents and multi-agent systems as graphs of steps rather than one-off prompts. Learners are focusing on stateful multi-agent workflows, LangChain building blocks, RAG pipelines, CrewAI-style agent teams, memory and routing patterns, and production-ready agent apps.
5. Cybersecurity trend: “SC-200: Microsoft Security Operations Analyst Associate.” – Demand for this topic grew by 38.9% month-over-month. SC-200 is Microsoft’s certification for security operations analysts who detect, investigate, and respond to threats across Microsoft security tools. Learners are focusing on Microsoft Defender XDR, Microsoft Sentinel, KQL threat hunting, incident response, SOAR playbooks, and hands-on SOC-style labs for the SC-200 exam.

Instructors that are growing in popularity:

These instructors saw the largest % month-over-month growth in enrollments (must meet minimum enrollment thresholds to qualify).

1. Joseph Heidari (4.7/5 rating) teaches DevOps – Enrollments grew by 803.77% month-over-month. Joseph Heidari’s fastest-growing course is Understanding Deployment: Core Concepts, which teaches how to deploy apps to AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, or on-prem setups, get comfortable with Linux and the terminal, design multi-cloud infrastructure, and cut cloud costs without losing capability.
2. Hania Uscka-Wehlou (4.9/5 rating) teaches Discrete Math – Enrollments grew by 114.93% month-over-month. Hania Uscka-Wehlou’s fastest-growing course is Discrete Mathematics 3, which teaches sequences and recurrence relations, classic number sequences, graph theory essentials (trees, planar graphs, Euler trails), graph coloring, and hundreds of carefully solved problems that make abstract ideas concrete.
3. Dr. Satyajit Pattnaik (4.4/5 rating) teaches LangGraph – Enrollments grew by 75.82% month-over-month. Dr. Satyajit Pattnaik’s fastest-growing course is Agentic AI Masters 2026: LangChain, LangGraph & CrewAI, which teaches Python foundations for AI, NLP and transformers, large language models, RAG with LangChain, stateful multi-agent workflows with LangGraph, CrewAI team orchestration, n8n automation, and guardrails for safer production agents.

Fastest growing courses on Udemy:

These courses saw the largest % growth in enrollments month-over-month (must meet minimum enrollment thresholds to qualify).

1. Claude Certified Architect Professional (CCAR-P) Exam Prep relates to Claude AI – Enrollments grew by 407.89% month-over-month. In this course, students are learning solution and multi-agent design, Claude model selection and prompting, RAG and integration patterns, evaluation and optimization, plus governance and safety practices aimed at the CCAR-P exam.
2. PMP Certification Exam Prep Exam 720 Questions 2026 PMP Exam relates to PMI PMBOK – Enrollments grew by 205.43% month-over-month. In this course, students are learning through case studies, scenario questions, and four full-length mock exams built to sharpen PMP exam readiness.
3. Primavera P6 Project Planning and Scheduling Masterclass relates to Oracle Primavera – Enrollments grew by 47.38% month-over-month. In this course, students are learning how to build complete P6 schedules from scratch, track performance with earned value and S-curves, manage project risk, and move faster on everyday planning and scheduling tasks.

I’m feelin’ lucky…

Feeling adventurous? Here’s a random pick from outside the AI spotlight: Story Editing Masterclass (4.7/5 rating). It’s for writers and editors who want to revise stories, novels, or screenplays. This course focuses on using structure, central mystery, grammar, and story ecology to strengthen the writing. Sometimes the best next skill is the one that finds you first.

Your path to storytelling mastery

Story Editing Masterclass

Jessica Perini

4.3 58 ratings

This article is focused on surfacing new, emerging learning trends. For more of a focus on overall popularity, view our popular and trending topics page.

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