Last month, I was thrilled to see edX, 2U’s global online learning platform, make Fast Company’s 2024 “Most Innovative” list—specifically for our advancements with artificial intelligence (AI) in education. Collectively, between edX and 2U, it’s our fifth time on the list and third consecutive year, so continuing to be recognized like this is an honor. But at the end of the day, accolades do not define or measure the impact of our mission. Nor do they distract us from our vision: to create a better future for all through the power of high-quality online education.
Behind our Fast Company win lies a much bigger picture of how far we’ve come in delivering the skills and tools that learners, our partners, and the workforce need to thrive in the age of AI. As generative AI rapidly reshapes the future of work—and with 97 million new AI jobs expected by 2025 and the AI market estimated to grow to $407 billion by 2027—the industry-wide benefits of our reach and scale have come into even sharper focus.
Over the past year, we’ve rallied our partners and several teams across our business to quickly transform edX.org into a top destination for AI learning content. We’ve created AI-powered tools on edX to give learners even more ways to discover career-relevant learning pathways and access real-time support. We’ve launched robust and flexible AI reskilling and upskilling opportunities for companies seeking to attract, train, and retain their talent. And we’re leveraging AI to enhance the services we provide our partners, everything from marketing support to faculty training.
In the following three areas, I’m eager to share our most meaningful progress—and a vision for where we’re heading with AI into the future.
Globally, job postings seeking AI skills have increased by 48% over the last year.1 While these skills are in high demand for application-building roles, employers increasingly seek them for traditionally less technical jobs in fields like healthcare, education, marketing, and HR. The world is feeling the pressure to keep up—no wonder there’s been a 234% YOY increase in Google searches for “AI course."2
In response, we’ve rapidly grown our diversified portfolio of online courses and programs to span AI education at every investment level, from free to degree. We did so because the data was in our favor: Searches for “AI” in 2023 increased 114% YOY on edX, making it a top five search term on our platform. Regardless of their career experience or background, professionals can now come to edX to feel empowered, stay relevant, and reap the rewards of the AI revolution.
Across all of our degree and non-degree (aka alternative credential) offerings, we’ve experienced a strong trend in AI content interest, signaling to us and our partners that now is the time to continue to develop new programs in the subject.
In our alternative credential segment:
In our degree segment:
With edX, we’ve always been at the forefront of harnessing new technologies to put cutting-edge skills in the grasp of millions around the globe—and AI has been no exception. Last year, we used OpenAI’s API to create Xpert, the collective of AI-powered tools on edX that serves as a learner’s academic assistant, meeting their evolving needs as they explore, learn, and grow. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, from one learner sharing that “Xpert has been really helpful with explaining things that are hard to understand” to an instructor calling Xpert “a major win for students, giving them a valuable edge in their learning journey.”
Nearly 700,000 unique users and edX.org visitors have engaged with Xpert to date. And because partners see its value for learners, over 3,000 open courses and programs on edX now incorporate Xpert as a learning assistant, including my MIT Circuits and Electronics course. Since its launch, we’ve added several Xpert features to drive even more promising outcomes.
The progress we’ve made in advancing our content, platform, and enterprise innovations is a testament to AI’s power and potential on edX—and we’re just getting started. Across our portfolio of offerings, we’re continuing to make greater use of generative AI and machine learning to enhance what we do.
For example, our Marketing team uses AI-driven automations to improve marketing efficiency, helping maximize partners’ visibility, prioritize outreach to prospective learners, and reach the right learners for their programs. Our Placement team combines personalized, hands-on support with AI-backed matching tools to help advance placement rates, retention, and outcomes for learners in our partners’ degree programs who are required to complete an onsite placement experience to graduate.
Over on our Faculty Engagement team, we help our partners maintain the academic integrity of their programs and adapt by training their faculty on enhancements to tools that include features like AI writing detection. And our boot camp instructors show learners how to use AI-powered tools like GitHub Copilot, Perplexity, and ChatGPT to help them comprehend the material and code more effectively.
As learners’ demands for AI evolve, we’re working with our partners to map AI skills frameworks across various business functions to new courses and programs. We also aim to build pathways through our AI content on edX that meet learners where they are today and guide them along their AI journey into the future.
In working toward our vision of enabling a complete lifecycle of AI learning, we ultimately recognize the importance of driving AI and human innovation in equal measure. On edX, AI won’t replace people learning from and with each other. On the contrary, we’re strategically implementing AI to ensure greater efficiencies in creating those interactions—and making them as meaningful and impactful as possible.
With edX, we remain steadfastly committed to maximizing how technology and people can work together toward achieving great outcomes.
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Interested in partnering to create new AI learning content on edX—or use AI learning content on edX to train and develop your workforce? Connect with us!