In his leadership and CEO courses, Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO of online learning company Coursera, tells business leaders not to expect technologists to know where their customers' most valuable problems lie. This has never been more important than now, as the generative AI hype cycle reaches its peak. Maggioncalda says:
You have to start with business value and make sure you have technologists on the team. People still don't fully understand that this isn't just a builder problem. It's a user problem. You want to get builders and users in the same room to figure out how to solve the customer problem. It's not that complicated, but I think it's a habit and a blind spot in organizations for leaders to simply say, 'This is the new AI. Talk to the people who work in technology.'”
Coursera, an online learning platform, offers about 800 AI courses, more than 350 of which are about generative AI. Majoncalda says the company sees four to five enrollments per minute around the world for its generative AI courses, and in some cases has seen a 1,000% increase in enrollment over the past two years.
The thing about generative AI is that it's not just for machine learning statisticians who build models. Generative AI courses are for anyone who uses it. These are skills on how to use it for marketing, software development, data analysis — they're not just content, they're certifications. People will increasingly have to prove they're skilled, not just learn better on the job.”
Majoncalda firmly believes that business leaders need to work very closely with construction contractors, which means learning about the technology and understanding what it can and can't do.
What I see a lot of times is companies look at technology and say, “Let's figure out what we can do with this technology.” And then technologists tinker with the technology. They tweak it, they try different algorithms. They change the temperature, they explore different models. What I say in my courses, and what many of my users say, is to first focus on the most valuable problem to solve for your customers and your business. And then think about what you can accomplish with these AI capabilities.
He added:
Capabilities are not infinite. AI can't do everything today, but it can do certain things pretty well. Understand well the realm of feasibility and capability, the realm of value and the problem to be solved, and find the intersection.”
AI Dog Food
Coursera itself has used generative AI to tackle a list of things it wants to offer its customers, and “eat up our product.” For example, language translation. The company wanted its courses to be available to anyone in the world, regardless of the language they speak. Maggioncalda explains:
We don't just have text, we have audio and video. Now, because we use AI, our courses are available in 21 languages. But this was a problem that had been going unsolved for a long time, and we looked at the highway and thought, “Now we can solve that problem.”
One example is the company's Coach service, which provides interactive online help.
We wanted to expand beyond just videos to also have support for students to help explain things and help with practice. It was a problem we had dreamed of solving for a long time.
The company used generative AI to develop a course builder for instructors.
Building these courses takes a long time, so we thought generative AI could help instructors build them faster, by stitching together the best parts of multiple courses into one, allowing instructors to meet specific learning goals and student needs.
Demand for job skills is dictating what Coursera includes in its generative AI courses: Job-oriented courses such as data science, technology, business leadership and management are all in high demand, according to Majoncalda.
Think about what skills these jobs require, including foundational skills as well as immersion skills. Then, once you know the job you want to focus on and the skills required, think about who can best teach this course and how.
Partnership
The company is working with around 325 universities and industry partners across the world to develop the courses.Majoncalda said that in the early stages, online platforms offered passive and then active learning, but generative AI has given rise to an interactive approach.
When you watch a video on YouTube, you just sit and watch it, just like you watch Netflix. You don't have to do anything. Then services like Coursera brought in a new era of online active learning: you watch a video and you do something. You build a project, you answer questions, you take quizzes, you reflect, you discuss with your peers. What generative AI does is move you from active learning to interactive learning. A Coach is like a tutor who stays with you throughout your learning and summarizes it for you. He explains it to you. He tells you how it's relevant to your work.
Majoncalda believes it is important to understand what generative AI tools can offer, as in the future they will provide CEOs, business leaders and employees with a safe space to think and try out different ideas.
For everyone who thinks and communicates ideas, generative AI will be a tool that helps us think better.
My take
With all the hype and buzz surrounding generative AI right now, it makes sense for decision-makers to take the time to learn and truly understand what the technology has to offer. Companies haven't been very good at connecting users and technologists to leverage technological developments, but if Maggioncalda is right, that may be changing.
