Anthony Salcito of Coursera on Why Skills Are the New Degree in the Age of AI

Anthony Salcito is President & GM of Enterprise at Coursera, where he leads partnerships with enterprises, universities, and governments to build job-relevant skills at scale. Previously, he held leadership roles at Microsoft and Nerdy (Varsity Tutors), and has spent his career at the intersection of technology, education, and workforce development.

💡 5 Things You'll Learn in This Episode

1. Why skills are becoming the new currency in hiring.
2.  How micro-credentials complement, not replace college degrees. 
3.  What AI-ready organizations do differently. 
4.  How the Coursera-Udemy merger expands learning opportunities. 
5.  Why lifelong learning is essential in the AI era. 

✨ Episode Highlights
[00:02:00] Anthony explains the vision behind the Coursera-Udemy merger.
[00:05:22] Why employers increasingly value micro-credentials alongside degrees.
[00:11:17] Technology doesn't drive transformation; people and culture do.
[00:20:40] Why the future isn't degrees or micro-credentials, it's both.
[00:28:01] What AI-first organizations do differently to build lasting skills.
[00:31:57] How Coursera evolved from MOOCs to workforce-focused learning.
[00:36:40] Global partnerships are expanding access to AI and job-ready skills.
[00:38:48] Anthony shares the edtech trends he's most excited about, including entrepreneurial mindsets and making technology "less obvious but essential." 

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Alex Sarlin: This season of EdTech Insiders is brought to you by Starbridge. Every year, K-12 districts and higher ed institutions spend over half a trillion dollars, but most sales teams miss the signals. Starbridge tracks early signs like board minutes, budget drafts, and strategic plans, and then helps you turn them into personalized outreach fast.

Win the deal before it hits the RFP stage. That's how top edtech teams stay ahead. 

[00:00:31] Anthony Salcito: So not just getting a four-year degree from a university, but actually getting micro-credentials in your pathway as a student. And that's a huge value proposition for universities that embrace because we see graduates with micro-credentials not only being more successful of entering the workforce, but starting out with higher salaries.

And that's what our micro-credential report reinforces that, hey, it's a differentiator, something that many universities are embracing. So it's not either/or. It's coming in with that degree and pathway and then recognizing it that the best degree is one that creates a foundation for learning inside of a human.

And so that student not only leaves with a degree and a micro-credential, but is gonna seek micro-credentials throughout their world of work.

[00:01:20] Alex Sarlin: Welcome to EdTech Insiders, the top podcast covering the education technology industry. From funding rounds to impact to AI developments across early childhood, K-12, higher ed, and work, you'll find it all here at EdTech Insiders. Remember to subscribe to the pod, check out our newsletter, and also our event calendar.

[00:01:41] Ben Kornell: And to go deeper, check out EdTech Insiders Plus, where you can get premium content, access to our WhatsApp channel, early access to events, and back-channel insights from Alex and Ben. Hope you enjoy today's pod.

[00:02:00] Alex Sarlin: Welcome to EdTech Insiders. We have a amazing guest today from a legendary edtech company, one that is close to my heart. We are talking to Anthony Salcito, Senior Vice President and President of Enterprise at Coursera. He joined Coursera in 2025, and he leads partnerships with companies, campuses, and governments to build job-relevant skills.

Previously, he held leadership roles at Microsoft and at Nerdie, which runs Varsity Tutors. Anthony Salcito, welcome to EdTech Insiders. 

[00:02:32] Anthony Salcito: Alex, it's good to be with you again. I always enjoy our conversations, and happy to see you 

[00:02:36] Alex Sarlin: Absolutely. There's so much going on in Coursera at all times. There's always developments.

But before we get into some of the newest news, one thing that is on people's minds in the EdTech world is that Coursera and Udemy have fully merged at this point. People who are watching this on video can see that you have Coursera and Udemy over your shoulder on your background there. Tell us a little bit about how that merger has been going so far and what it means for the future of Coursera and Udemy.

[00:03:02] Anthony Salcito: Yeah, certainly super exciting and thanks for asking, Alex. Obviously, Coursera and Udemy have just come together just about a month ago. So we're still working through what the integration looks like and how we can expand the value and capabilities that we deliver to customers, bringing the best of both platforms and companies together to serve the needs of learners.

It's a critical time in this space, and I think the combination and the combined strength of Coursera and Udemy is going to be amazing for companies, for employers, for job seekers, and certainly for learners to get access to not only the content that they need, but having a credential resonate in the marketplace to help them on a path to jobs.

And that's certainly something that I think consolidation helps because it's a combined strength, but also combined credentials coming into the market at a larger plan. The other thing that I think is gonna be exciting for me is that we're truly now much more of a global company with the combined Coursera and Udemy platforms coming together.

Especially on the enterprise side. Our enterprise business in both places was not as global as you would like, but now we're pretty much serving every country with almost 300 million learners on the platform across the combined Udemy and Coursera business. So huge opportunity to build on that foundation and really provide much more resonant credentials into employers and job seekers.

[00:04:24] Alex Sarlin: That's incredible. 300 million. Yeah. Observers of this space for a while know that Udemy went into the enterprise space actually a few years prior to Coursera going in. Yeah. Coursera and Udemy have had-- both have big enterprise businesses, but very complimentary different enterprise businesses, putting them together to make global business 300 million users.

That's an incredible number. You really put Coursera, Udemy at the center of the sort of upskilling revolution that we are entering very quickly in this AI era. 

[00:04:51] Anthony Salcito: Yeah, there's a lot of work to do and continue to do because this is super important. We're hearing incredible feedback from our employers on the need to become much more skill first as it relates to building out their talent.

And I think what's happening in a good way in a world of AI is that human capabilities and human expansion of productivity is become a huge priority for the organization we serve, governments universities and certainly the corporate companies that we support. 

[00:05:22] Alex Sarlin: Absolutely. You mentioned the microcredentials in there that, you know, this has been a feature of- Absolutely

of both you, me, and Coursera for a long time, that you can ear- earn credentials that signify certain skill sets. And Coursera has their 2026 Microcredential Impact Report coming out very soon， and it's looking at who's getting these credentials, what they mean, and what workforce readiness looks like in this, again, this age of AI.

Give us a little preview of this report. What are the biggest signals you're seeing in the microcredential world around what are people looking for when they're looking for upskilling, they're looking for credentials at this period? What areas, what regions? Yeah, I would love to hear how you're thinking about it.

[00:05:59] Anthony Salcito: Yeah, I mean, I think the report says something that I think many of us have recognized. Many of us may have been outside of maybe job seeking for a while, may have not realized, but employers are increasingly focused on demonstration of skills and readiness, not allowing for things like a remediation year or two years as people get up to speed.

Increasingly, coming ramped and ready into a job is absolutely important. And this is happening in a world where AI is not only a big part of that capability and skill that's needed, but AI is also changing job requirements super quickly inside of an organization. So the pace of change is expanding.

Need to adapt to skills is there. And because of productivity cuts with regards to resources and budgets, et cetera, in organizations, increasingly, there's less appetite for getting employees ready in seat. And that's something that has been hugely challenging for job seekers, and this is one of the reasons why microcredentials are resonating.

Companies are moving to more skills-based hiring, not just looking at what your resume and CV says you've done, but what skills are you bringing to your job and the task that's being hired for. Hugely valuable for employers. And that's why a microcredential in many ways is a signal that, "Hey, I'm skill ready.

I've kept up to date. I'm aligning my current capabilities to the workplace needs that you're seeking as an employer." That's becoming even more and more important than it has been historically. Many employers are telling us in the survey, I think 92% of employers are saying they're willing to pay higher but also differentiate value on like candidates based on microcredentials.

So a huge affirmation from employers that were surveyed about the value of microcredentials. We're seeing universities starting to recognize that When I went into the world of work, it was that sort of four-year degree carrying you through your work life. And maybe I'll skill up inside of the job, but in many ways that's hard to do in a fast pace of change with AI.

Yeah. And demonstrating my capabilities, but also showing even internally, not just for job seekers, that I've met the bar with regards to skills required for my role is increasingly more important. And certainly the micro-credential report provides clear evidence of that. 

[00:08:31] Alex Sarlin: Yeah. I hear two things in there that I want to double-click on because they're really, really interesting.

One is as the signal of skills and credentials goes up, it sort of implies that the signal that goes with prior experience or as you say, the traditional bachelor's degree or what you did in the job, if you were a digital marketer five years ago, the job has actually changed. So it's not necessarily clear to employers that even if you've done this job or something similar for a long time, that that experience will transfer over to this new era.

It's such an interesting moment where you have this line in the sand where experience before the AI era may or may not translate fully to experience after the AI era. So we all need this signaling across the board and upskill-- I mean, genuine upskilling, but also the signal saying, like you said, "I've kept up.

I know the n- current tool stack, I know the current AI," and the meta signal, "I'm ready to learn," right? Absolutely. I think that's there too. I'd love to hear you talk about that. 

[00:09:27] Anthony Salcito: I, I don't wanna, I don't wanna diminish the value of experience. Certainly having learned experience, having the interaction, the people experience, there's tremendous value in a depth of experience that you bring to a job.

Yeah. But if you don't approach that with a growth mindset, being a constant learner-- When I hire and interview candidates, the thing I'm trying to assess is that are they curious? Are they willing to humble themselves by admitting that they don't know things and willing to learn and pick up skills? Or are they saying, "Hey, I've been there, done that, I'm excellent, I'm gonna bring capabilities"?

That mindset is actually going to create a disconnect between the pace of change and how things are evolving and what you want in an organizational DNA, which is that a sort of a group of lifelong curious, hungry learners that are adapting to the pace of change in the workplace. 

[00:10:20] Alex Sarlin: That's very well put.

Yeah. So maybe it's not about devaluing experience as much as having that experience be, as you say, sort of come with a sense of humility and understanding of the rapid pace of change, so that the- Absolutely ... experience has to be combined with a new set of skills to be able to keep up with this incredibly fast-moving job landscape.

You have an interesting background. You know, we mentioned in your bio you've worked at Microsoft. Our first interview together, you were in the context of nerdy, of Varsity Tutors. Yeah. You've worked in education, enterprise, yet technology. Throughout all of these different roles, you've had lots of perspectives.

What do you think organizations still misunderstand about education, about workforce readiness, uh, specifically when it comes to preparing non-technical employees, which I think is something we don't talk about enough in this AI era, right? Because everything has some element of tech. Like, what are employers still maybe not seeing when they look at the education on somebody's resume?

What could they expand their understanding around? 

[00:11:17] Anthony Salcito: Well, yeah, as you said, I've had really a fortunate opportunity to work really at the intersection of technology and learning, whether it's transforming how classrooms and universities are using technology to extend learning, deal with content to personalize learning paths through tutoring or individualized instruction plans.

Like, there's been a lot of focus that I've had there and what it means for faculty, what it means for teachers, what it means for student expectation on assessments. There's a lot that still needs to change, but I've learned a lot and certainly applying that now in the work that we do at Coursera and Udemy.

Fundamentally, and I think this lesson has been demonstrated throughout human history, certainly long before my employment career, but throughout my employment career, I've definitely seen it reinforced, that we often over-pivot on the technology as the driver of change and innovation. 

[00:12:15] Alex Sarlin: Hmm. 

[00:12:15] Anthony Salcito: And largely, it's actually coming from the humans.

It's going to be many, many examples. When technology first entered corporate institutions, there was an expectation that technology was gonna deliver productivity and efficiencies and huge gains. And it wasn't until organizations start to rethink their mission, their capabilities, how they deliver products, how they work with suppliers, deal with customers, et cetera.

It was that rethinking that applied technology the right way, fueled by human ingenuity and innovation, that actually started seeing gains. When we've seen advancements on things like cloud computing and expansion of data science, et cetera, the technology capabilities have been a fuel, but it has been the human skilling and talent alignment that has actually driven the real change and impact.

The same dynamic is happening with AI. Yeah. There's been huge investments on AI. There's been many companies claiming that AI is going to drive productivity gains and future advancements, and often seeing a gap And that's largely because it's a skill challenge right now in many ways. AI is gonna get faster and better like every technology throughout human history has done, is it, it's really accelerating now in a world of AI.

But it is really not just about learning AI, it's about rethinking how to solve challenges, how to really remove limitations of an old world of computing with AI capabilities, and that skill set is a cultural one. It's one that requires training and investment, and really a foundation on things like critical thinking and leadership to drive the change And as you rightly said, Alex, in a world of technology that was being touched largely by less than 10% of the employee base and used by the rest, in some ways in a productivity way, that dynamic is really shifted with AI.

Right now, everyone in an organization needs to be a part of not only using, but building with AI- Exactly ... solving challenges, leveraging AI to create apps or agents to become more effective and efficient. That is not just in the hands of 6% of the employee base, it's really 100%, and that requires a deeper commitment on skilling that's happening.

We see this naturally happening in our platform, but hopefully organizations are starting to address this. When we see rapid growth of AI on Coursera, for example, just this past year there's been about 234% growth on AI enrollment. So people are certainly seeking to get skilled up on AI, and this is not just AI fundamentals, but this is getting crisper on data visualization, prompt engineering, building agents, et cetera.

But they're also, as they take those AI courses, gravitating towards human skills like critical thinking, leadership, collaboration, et cetera, because they see that as absolutely a core component to unleashing the potential of AI inside of an organization. So that blend of that human connection and technology has been absolutely something that I've learned throughout my career.

It's absolutely true with AI, even at a greater scale because of the organizational footprint. 

[00:15:35] Alex Sarlin: Yeah. It's a great point about the human cultural, corporate cultural element, that it's one thing to have technology available inside an organization, it's another to have people who are actually hungry to use it in new ways to solve problems, to collaborate, to think critically about what needs to be solved, and I think we're all sort of feeling that interesting tension now, especially in the enterprise space, where people are adapting AI platforms, right?

They're spending lots of tokens, they're pulling in lots of different tools, and yet the companies that are really making it work are the ones where people are actually committed and excited about it. It's not just that the AI sort of solves things on its own. And I think your point about building is so core.

I haven't heard anybody put it that way, but it feels like the big shift in what workforce skills are becoming is that people are increasingly, rather than learning to use off-the-shelf tools, right, like the leading tools in the field, they're gonna build their own tools. Rather than having to work individually or with a small team within their organization or even a big team, they're gonna basically build their own team, right?

They're gonna be, be increasingly building agents and building- It's a building era. Yeah, please. 

[00:16:39] Anthony Salcito: Yeah. Like this is where mindset comes in. You need entrepreneurs solving problems, building pathways. There's been lots of times that you've had people out in the field frustrated by the pace of change, maybe the fact that corporate tools don't align to what's actually happening on the ground.

Now you actually have agency to those people to say, "Hey, help figure it out. Come build a shortcut." And then that could either be something that can scale and come up, or it'll just be a hack that saves time and efficiency. There are many, many examples of folks at every level in an organization having their own AI tool plan.

"Hey, these are the things that I use. This is the workflow that I've enabled for myself." Just making people more productive, more efficient and effective. It really starts with that mindset though, and reinforce it with leadership. Like where, "Hey, this is something that we expect, this is something that we embrace."

And remove that focus on fear, a fear of displacement, which has, I think been a big part of the AI landscape of people worried about AI's role. In many ways, I think AI will remove tasks from the equation much more than it removes people. We need to skill up the people to actually embrace AI differently and then expand capabilities, expand opportunities for jobs that we can't really envision yet, which has been true throughout human history with technology paradigm changes.

There has been displacement of tasks, but creation of many, many more tasks, but also jobs that take advantage of these new capabilities. 

[00:18:13] Alex Sarlin: Yes. I think you're speaking directly to this fundamental complex tension happening in the workforce right now, where you have some CEOs feeling very proud of layoffs, right?

They're saying, "Hey, we're using AI so we could cut our workforce, or we could freeze hiring because AI is making us more productive." And others saying, "Wait, no, that's not the right approach. AI makes people more productive, makes tasks more easy to do, therefore you can do more. So keep hiring. Use the people you 

[00:18:39] Anthony Salcito: already-" Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of companies that, hey, we're trying to gain productivity and efficiency gains and used AI as a scapegoat, which created many, many more negative feelings about AI because- Yeah

there were examples because leaders said, "Hey, we're cutting a bunch of people because of AI productivity gains." But I would imagine if you pressed and said, "What actual gains are you measuring? What capabilities are you enabled?" Et cetera, there was less clarity because AI was still evolving and developing, and in many cases, productivity gains are still gonna trail.

In any technology paradigm, that's what happens. It doesn't happen immediately. When cloud came in, the gains happen over time, not immediately. And what I think will happen is AI will drive productivity changes when there's a requisite foundational commitment to skilling and building- Yeah ... with the people inside the organization.

And when that happens, we'll open up new capabilities that we're starting to see as well as, and certainly job creation, which often is a part of this mix. There will be changes, which has certainly happened as well, but we also have to see the opportunity for upside, which I think many, many companies are starting to begin to see those productivity gains come through.

[00:19:50] Alex Sarlin: 100%. So one of the things that's I think pretty unique or very unusual about Coursera as an organization is that it offers, you know, you mentioned signals, right? It offers microcredentials as signals of particular skill sets. It also offers full courses that you can take. It offers degrees- Yes ... that you can take.

It sort of offers signals at many different grain sizes, many different types of educational signaling. And I'm curious, you just came out with this microcredential report, and we're talking about the changing hiring landscape, the changing landscape of how you know internally within a company whether somebody is up to speed on what they need to be doing.

How do you see the relationship between microcredentials and degrees or some of the more traditional signals evolving over the next few years? Is it going to go more short-term, less long-term, or is it going to be a more interesting mix? 

[00:20:40] Anthony Salcito: I mean, there's certainly what I think a foundation that it's not Either or.

It's not either a degree or a micro-credential. I think increasingly it's both, and certainly for certain roles it's gonna be a broad mix of both I learned this all the way even 20 years ago at Microsoft when we were driving certifications of across our platform, getting an Azure certification, getting the foundational certifications across the Microsoft dev stack, et cetera, were critical and valuable for us with hiring.

But we never removed the university degree preference with regards to our hiring process because you may have that capability and demonstrated skill, but you wanna demonstrate that in a context of working with people, getting the foundation that comes often through a degree process. So we always blended both, and we're starting to see that with the Coursera.

Coursera's pedigree, our foundation, comes from a university campus- Of course ... founded by two university faculty members at Stanford, relying on hundreds of university partners across the world to not only build content, but partner with regards to pathways for learners. We see universities using Coursera and faculty members blending content from industry partners like Google and Microsoft and IBM within their content.

So faculty members have said, "Hey, this has helped me not only deliver the foundation that I'm doing with my students, but also bring in real world context to make it super relevant with regards to jobs." So this blend, I think, is part of the new world of learning. Yeah. Universities are starting to see this as a differentiator to say, "Hey, we are more connected because we are building microcredentials as part of our degree process."

So not just getting a four-year degree from a university, but actually getting microcredentials in your pathway as a student, and that's a huge value proposition for universities that embrace because we see graduates with microcredentials not only being more successful of entering the workforce, but starting out with higher salaries, and that's what our microcredential report reinforces that, hey, it's a differentiator, something that many universities are embracing.

So it's not either/or. It's coming in with that degree and pathway, and then recognizing it that the best degree is one that creates a foundation for learning inside of a human. And so that student not only leaves with a degree and a microcredential, but is gonna seek microcredentials throughout their world of work.

[00:23:14] Alex Sarlin: I love that, that the best degree is one that creates a foundation of learning inside a graduate, inside a human. That's a really interesting way to look at it because we're in this era of continuous learning. It's just that's been true for a while, but it's never been more true than now. You work so closely with, you know, enterprise as sort of your bailiwick at Coursera, and if I put myself in the shoes of a company owner right now or a head of a division or a COO, CFO, something like that, and look at AI and I say, "Okay, maybe I'm trying out AI tools.

I maybe have a contract with a frontier lab or a contract with somebody doing a specialized AI software. I've introduced it. Maybe I've done a training." And people have started to play with it, but maybe they haven't actually gotten to that full cultural change that you mentioned earlier where everybody's building their own tools, building their own teams.

I might look at this generation coming in, people graduate, the new hires, as you mentioned earlier from the report, people are hiring people if they have demonstrated skills, if they are actually embracing this AI technology and able to do this. I might look at new people coming in as a catalyst for change, right?

I, I'm gonna hire somebody who knows exactly how to build their own agents and can he- help everyone else do it. I'm gonna hire somebody who is really, really good at, at building those workarounds within enterprise software. I'm curious how you see companies who work with the Coursera platform, how do they combine upskilling people already at the company with bringing in people who sort of on day one, as you mentioned, are already AI native or AI ready?

[00:24:44] Anthony Salcito: I certainly think that organizations are looking for candidates to not only be AI ready, but skill ready coming in at a level that didn't exist in the past. We're seeing an erosion of entry-level jobs across the world. That's certainly a challenge for graduates as well, partly because of the reductions that you highlighted earlier, Alex.

I think that, that it's an interesting s- space We're seeing successful organizations focus on capability across their organization. What do the leaders have the skills that are needed to be successful? Not just access to the technology, but really are they elevating their impact in, across the organization with the technology?

And as they think about the path towards, you know, AI, it's, I need to hire good people that are AI ready, AI native, so to speak. But without that foundational experience that can happen, you may not go as far. So the blend is certainly still important, where- Yeah ... you've got people that are skilled up inside an organizations that build that foundation of change, but are comfortable and thinking the right way with the tools.

I think that is, is the right marriage. But certainly many, many organizations wanna bring new, new hires in to get AI ready quicker. That AI talent is certainly a capability that differentiates graduates coming into the workforce. 

[00:26:04] Alex Sarlin: Or people who are upskilling. When I say new generation, doesn't necessarily mean recent graduates.

It can mean that, but it's like you bring people in who are sort of have been embracing AI in all sorts of ways, and you know on day one they're gonna be using the tools to do all sorts of major projects. And then as simultaneously- Yeah ... as you're saying, you're upskilling people inside the organization to be able to have that cultural change and do important productivity enhancing projects.

[00:26:26] Anthony Salcito: The reality is the AI learned three years ago is no longer at all relevant. Things are changing so quickly that the key piece is this openness to learn and that curiosity and hunger, that is the value. Are you jazzed about new AI capabilities and what you can do? What does it trigger with you and how you solve problems?

I think that's the key piece. You may have that coming out of university, but if you stop and say, "Oh, these are my favorite tools that I used when I was graduating, and I'm gonna use that in the world of work," you will be obsolete in a year or two. So it doesn't give you anything if you're not giving that foundation.

That's one of the things that we increasingly see as part of the foundation for what we experience at Coursera, that organizations that build a foundation and culture of learning, that have high engagement rates with regards to not employees, not only completing courses, but building skills, uh, see higher impact and the gains in productivity that they're looking for.

[00:27:26] Alex Sarlin: Yeah. So you work across so many different organization enterprise customers of Coursera and Udemy at this point. I'm curious if you've seen any patterns of certain types of leaders or certain types of companies who are seeing this major AI revolution happen inside their company. What are they doing culturally to make AI part of the fabric of the company?

I'm sure, obviously it involves upskilling and using tools and education- Yeah ... I'm not sure for Coursera, but what culturally are they doing to make sure that people can actually embrace AI and not just sort of steer clear or freeze in the face of something new? 

[00:28:01] Anthony Salcito: Yeah. I think many, many organizations are trying to be AI first.

I think it has to be authentic. It has to be shared and embraced and modeled by leadership, and that's certainly critical. It needs to not just be a sort of a, an AI training initiative, "Hey, we've got an AI license for you. Get trained and ready to go." That's not enough. It needs to be an ongoing commitment to skill building as well as development over time, because you're gonna see capabilities and problem-solving evolve.

And what we've learned from many organizations, it needs to be very, very curated by role. Mm-hmm. So you need to understand what the receptionist in an organization needs to know and how to enable the receptionist to leverage AI effectively, as well as every other role inside an organization all the way through the CEO.

It's super important to do that, establish sort of what is the specific plan, the workflow, and outcomes expected by role, and then you've gotta measure impact throughout. So it's not just about did someone check a box by completing a course or going through- Right ... an exercise, but are they doing stuff that is yielding productivity gains inside the organization, hours saved because of an agentic process flow, improved customer reaction time because we've created a bot?

Whatever the thing is, I think it's important to highlight and measure throughout the journey. We're seeing organizations like Moderna who've done all of the things that I said above But they've built the foundation in sort of their AI academy that is tied to the outcome that employers are getting through it.

But that versus going through a course. And that has ironically helped spike what they're getting with regards to course completion rates. So they have very, very high course completion rates because they put the focus on what matters, and that is impact across the organization. So that's an example, but the successful organizations do that.

Siemens is another good one where Siemens has really made every employee connect to AI and data as part of a foundational skill up. So it's not something that is just for the tech workers or people who touch technology as part of their day job. It's because a foundational commitment has been set by leadership, so folks embrace.

So that's the key I think that we've seen from successful companies in this space. 

[00:30:21] Alex Sarlin: Yeah. It's interesting to hear you talk about measurement of impact as such a driver of AI, which it makes total sense, and I think it's something that a lot of companies are wrestling with, that you're mentioning outliers, or maybe not outliers, but you know, people who are pioneering in that, places like Moderna and Siemens, big technology and pharmaceutical companies who are think really hard about the technology.

But a lot of companies are really wrestling with this idea of, "Okay, we have this input. We have AI access. We have people, we have trainings. We have the beginning of it, but we really don't know how to measure what's working. We don't know how to measure within-- especially within the context of different roles."

You mentioned, you know, the receptionist versus marketing versus strategy versus sales. It looks so different. I'm curious, as you're looking at all of these enterprises wrestling with this really important piece, one thing that strikes me is that, you know, Coursera, years ago, I, I'm thinking of, and I wanna date myself here, but you know, years ago it was very much in the sort of academic realm.

The partners were all universities. They were-- the classes were-- top classes were things like, you know, Egyptology and things like that. And now we're talking about not only is it hyper-practical, but these courses directly lead to business outcomes exactly in the way you're just naming, that it's like people who finish more courses see more productivity gains and see more skilling.

That's a really interesting trajectory. I know that you're-- you've been at Coursera only a couple of years and it's getting to be an older EdTech company, but I'd love to just hear you talk a little bit about that really interesting arc towards practicality and measurement, meaning like measurable outputs of the learning versus where it was in the beginning, which was much closer to the traditional university model.

[00:31:57] Anthony Salcito: Coursera currently has three hundred and seventy-five, what we call partners, and a large part of that is coming from universities, and universities providing a range of different content to the platform, including subjects that may be mu-much more of a curiosity or a very specialized discipline That's still part of the remit.

But what happens organically is that learners tell us where they need help or either gaps that they're seeking that we don't have on the platform that we need to scale up, or, uh, gravitate to certain courses that either enhance their capabilities to get a job and build skills for the jobs that they have And that drives what's going on in the platform.

So with the world of AI, with the world of continued need for cybersecurity, data science, those tend to gravitate towards not only popular courses for enterprise customers that are reskilling their organization, but individuals that are trying to build out their skills to make themselves more employable.

So that's been a natural evolution that reflects the world, uh, that we live in. But our commitment is obviously to serve the needs of all learners. And so we have broad relationships with the universities I mentioned, but also with the tech companies that are driving the change. Companies like Anthropic and, and OpenAI and Microsoft, Google, Amazon, IBM.

These are partners to us to fuel the content that is needed to prepare for this, this changing world. The partnership with Udemy just expands that exponentially. So we go from about having sixteen thousand courses on Coursera to a few hundred thousand courses that will be available to learners. So, so it's a, a huge opportunity to expand the catalog and different content modalities, which I think will further align our capabilities to the, the needs of a changing workforce.

[00:33:44] Alex Sarlin: It's absolutely amazing to see. Forgive me, I'm gonna do a tiny bit of memory lane on my part before the next question, but I think you'll find it interesting and hopefully the listeners will as well. I was at Coursera for a number of years in the earlier days, and there was a moment where we were looking at...

You say, you know, it's driven by what learners wanna learn. There was a moment in the early days where we were looking at the search results. We were saying, "Hey, what are people looking for on Coursera?" Because that's obviously a very strong signal. The number one thing at the time was Microsoft Excel, which makes sense.

One of the most popular business platforms in the world. And yet we had no courses on it at the time, and no partners willing to teach it at the time because all of the partners were traditional universities. They were doing amazing work. I mean, the courses were incredible, but Excel was just not in their wheelhouse.

It felt way too vocational, way too businessy, and they ended up going with one partner who had come in through a different door, created Excel courses, which ended up being incredibly popular. Obviously, we saw Google do incredibly popular courses, and now I feel like we're all the way to the other side now, where you have courses on everything under the sun and the flywheel between what people want and need to learn for their practical career outcomes really do appear on Coursera very quickly.

Back then, we were jealous of Udemy because it would be like something new would come out and Udemy would immediately have a hundred courses on it because they were created by individuals, and it would take Coursera a little bit longer to make anything on that. Now the powers are combined. It's so responsive to the marketplace, and I'm constantly seeing courses pop up on Coursera or, or projects that are about the absolute most cutting edge AI tool.

I find it incredible and very exciting, frankly, because I think education should be really practical. I'm curious how you react to a story like that. Can you imagine a world where Coursera could not make an Excel course even though it was the number one- Well, 

[00:35:30] Anthony Salcito: the Microsoft example rings true for me because we had been working at Microsoft to build out the courses, build out the ecosystem, and it was very, very hard to scale.

We would provide Excel training courses to schools to get students the credentials so they can become more employable. Microsoft is now one of Coursera's closest partners. Exactly. Exactly. We're gonna build 70 courses this year alone with Microsoft to put in the platform. So that sort of- Amazing

industry into university and content creator, you know, we have all the bases covered, which I think is just gonna be a great thing for learners because not only we'll have a mixed modality of different content types and lengths, et cetera, we'll have different sources of content, but different voices, specifically voices inside of a country or a local environment that is not only in local language, but in local context in terms of the world of work, which I think we couldn't necessarily easily do at Coursera because content was coming from 375 sources.

But now with a much larger content creator pool with Udemy, not only will we have a vast size of content, but it will also be aligned to the local needs and reflection of the local environments that we serve. 

[00:36:40] Alex Sarlin: That's amazing. Let's actually dive a little deeper into that because I think that is another core part of Coursera's mission is democratizing access, providing economic mobility and- Sure

access to learning for people all around the world. And you've mentioned you're in every country, even on the enterprise space, let alone the consumer space. What gives you the most excitement and optimism about the future of global learning through Coursera, including in the age of AI? Like, how might Coursera accelerate the global move towards a skill revolution?

[00:37:10] Anthony Salcito: Well, we see this just with the conversations that we had in terms of what makes organizational successful. It's clarity on leadership, et cetera. I just got off a conversation with a leader in India who's driving the f- the foundation of change for what India's been committed to at a country level to skill up citizens for the future of work.

We see partnerships with countries like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan who have built org-wide commitment with businesses and universities to skill up citizens. We're doing a lot of work in Singapore in partnership with an initiative called Skills Future, which drives a lot of opportunity for change. So there's huge potential for these types of multi-stakeholder partnerships to drive the future o- of how skilling lands into the world.

I'm excited about our combined strengths to provide that richness there. The foundation of being a global company starts with access, so not only access to content, but access to local language, so we can engage with the individuals we serve. We do that with, obviously, localized content using things like AI dubbing to help with seamless translation, and that's certainly valuable.

If you have a faculty member from an institution that can scale globally, that's an amazing thing. But it's also amazing to have content creators in those countries in local language sharing content. So I think having that blend is, is certainly gonna be a strength for us. 

[00:38:34] Alex Sarlin: That's fantastic. As we get to the end of our conversation, I'd love to hear your answer to this question we've asked many, many different people, which is, you know, what is the most exciting trend you see in the EdTech landscape right now that our listeners should keep an eye on?

[00:38:48] Anthony Salcito: Well, certainly I think this shift to skills is important. I think we've often talked about things like competencies in K through 12 education. That hasn't gone anywhere w- because we haven't really baked it into assessments. We're seeing universities recognize that it's beyond degree, and we need a, a sort of a foundation for skills.

I think more relevant context is obviously the critical piece. Alex, you may know in, outside of my day job, I work very closely with the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship- 

[00:39:16] Alex Sarlin: Mm ... 

[00:39:16] Anthony Salcito: which builds a foundational skill that I think will be ever more important in the world, and that is an entrepreneurial mindset.

To take what you know and apply it to actually driving impact inside of work, I think is the critical relevant skill that students are gonna need. That is starting to be widely embraced at the university level because of the recognition of what the micro-credential report says, and that is job-ready skills that communicate and clarify your capabilities to employers resonate.

We're starting to see a push for that in some schools in the K through 12 space, and I think that shift has to get even bigger o- over time. The other thing that I think is happening is, which is what I think the goal for me always has been, make technology less obvious but essential- Mm ... inside of learning.

Meaning, it's been very clumsily obvious in every classroom environment. It's about the device and the laptops, et cetera, et cetera. Yes. What now with advanced technology capabilities, things like recording lectures and providing AI notes, I can spend my time differently with my students. I can have more presence.

As opposed to sitting, uh, students in front of a laptop, I can have more engagement, more participation. Totally. And structure learning differently because of that. So I think that the opportunity to make technology essential but less obvious, I think is the critical excitement that I have for schools. 

[00:40:38] Alex Sarlin: I love that, and I think that's a core lesson for the edtech world right now, this idea that as we're facing a little bit of a backlash, maybe a lot of a backlash against screens and laptops and cell phones, and this idea of devices and students being inside a technology world, we can still use technology to do incredible learning, but maybe not in a little more invisible way, in a way that's supporting classrooms in a more ambient sense.

I think that's gonna be a really powerful trend. I really appreciate hearing that. Anthony Salcito is Senior Vice President and President of Enterprise at Coursera and Udemy. Thank you so much for being here with us on EdTech Insiders. 

[00:41:12] Anthony Salcito: Thank you, Alex.

[00:41:13] Alex Sarlin: Thanks for listening to this episode of EdTech Insiders. If you like the podcast, remember to rate it and share it with others in the edtech community. For those who want even more EdTech insider, subscribe to the free EdTech Insiders newsletter on Substack.

This season of EdTech Insiders is brought to you by Cooley LLP. Cooley is the go-to law firm for education and edtech innovators, offering industry-informed counsel across the pre-K to gray spectrum. With a multidisciplinary approach and a powerful edtech ecosystem, Cooley helps shape the future of education