Udemy Banks on Artificial Intelligence to Power Online Learning

Summary

Bloomberg Businessweek — “Udemy Banks on Artificial Intelligence to Power Online Learning”

Hosts: Carol Massar, Tim Stenovec
Guest: Hugo Sarazin, CEO of Udemy
Date: September 30, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on the transformation of Udemy, a major online learning platform, as it pivots toward an “AI-powered skills acceleration platform.” Host Carol Massar and co-host Tim Stenovec interview Udemy CEO Hugo Sarazin about how artificial intelligence is being used to reshape workforce training, the company’s expanding enterprise business, global demand for AI skills, and the evolving needs of individual learners and companies. The conversation also touches on the human side of workplace development and the future of online learning in a rapidly changing job market.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Influence of AI on Online Learning

[02:22]

• Udemy is moving from being a traditional online course distributor (asynchronous learning, one-size-fits-all) to a platform leveraging AI for “continuous” and “personalized” learning.
• Hugo Sarazin: “With AI, we have the opportunity to change the game… I can learn and assess what you know and adapt the course in a way that, you know, focuses on the area where you need help.”
• Personalized learning adapts to the learner’s current skillset, identifies weak points, and reinforces learning through targeted labs and AI-generated roleplays.
• This shift aims to accelerate “reskilling of the workforce moving forward.”

Trends and Insights from Enterprise Customers

[04:25]

• Udemy serves over 17,000 enterprise customers globally.
• There’s explosive growth in demand for AI courses: “Every minute, eight people enroll in AI classes.”
• At the same time, there’s a 40% rise in demand for adaptive “human skills” (creative thinking, collaboration, communication), reflecting the dual need for technical and soft skills in the workplace.
  • Sarazin: “As much as the technical skills are important, enterprises are looking for the human side and keep the human aspect of moving forward.”
• Companies are figuring out the best way to adopt AI and are relying on Udemy’s data and course offerings to guide internal training.

State of the Business & Market Forces

[06:03]

• Global presence: 60% of Udemy’s business is outside North America.
• Growth has stabilized post-pandemic, but remains “robust”; current economic “uncertainty” has led to a “wait and see” approach among some customers.
• Ongoing “catch up and a rush to bring in the reskilling” as companies realize technology investments require skilled workers to be effective.
• Cites a World Economic Forum prediction: 92 million workers in developed countries will need AI-driven reskilling over the next five years.

The Shift from Consumer to Enterprise Revenue

[07:00]

• Udemy’s revenue mix has shifted from “largely consumer” (2019–2020) to “dramatic” enterprise growth—now about 63% enterprise revenue.
• The consumer segment is still important; recent graduates and job-seekers use Udemy as a “finishing school,” taking targeted courses and building project portfolios.
• Udemy is moving away from single-course purchases to a subscription model, aiming to become a platform where learners can “continuously learn and set career goals”—including partnerships with hiring platforms like Indeed.

AI’s Role in Course Design & Creation

[08:38]

• AI is used internally to personalize the learner experience and also to empower instructors.
• AI streamlines the creation process: assists with curriculum development, generates examples and images, and allows instructors to spend more time on critical thinking and student engagement.
  • Sarazin: “We’re making all of that super easy so that the instructor can spend their time where…they’re applying their critical thinking, they’re finding analogies, they’re finding ways to engage the students in better ways.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Hugo Sarazin [02:53]:
  “With AI, we have the opportunity to change the game. And I think we’re making a pretty big pivot to continuous learning, personalized learning.”

• Tim Stenovec [02:13]:
  “Listen, if anything we learned in Covid though, the importance of, you know, kids being around other kids, being around teachers and people is socializing and socialization super, super important.”

• Hugo Sarazin [04:49]:
  “We’re spending a lot of time learning from our customer. We’re a learning platform. We love to learn.”

• Hugo Sarazin [07:26]:
  “Maybe in the last few years we haven’t invested sufficiently [in consumer]. . . Right now, as you know, the job markets, the new graduates are struggling to find jobs. They may not have been prepared for what this economy is requiring and they turn to platforms like Udemy.”

• Hugo Sarazin [08:46]:
  “We have an instructor team that is finding ways to automate and streamline the process so that you can create the curriculum, you can create examples, you can generate images if that’s what you needed.”

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:32] Opening and context: AI’s growing role in education (reference to Duolingo & Luis Von Ahn)
• [02:22] Introduction of Hugo Sarazin, Udemy CEO
• [02:53] Sarazin explains Udemy’s vision for AI-powered personalized learning
• [04:25] Discussing enterprise customer learnings and demand trends
• [06:03] The post-pandemic global business environment and reskilling imperative
• [07:00] Revenue mix and the shift toward enterprise customers
• [08:38] How Udemy utilizes AI in course design and instructor tools

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Conclusion

In this episode, Hugo Sarazin underscores Udemy’s commitment to leveraging AI to enable more adaptive, personalized, and effective skill-building for individuals and companies. Demand for both technical AI-related skills and adaptive human skills is surging. As the platform pivots toward subscription-based, enterprise-focused offerings, Udemy aims to prepare the workforce for the ongoing technological revolution—empowering both learners and instructors while maintaining a balance between automation and the “human side” of learning.

Transcript

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[Carol Massar]

You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Massar and Tim Stanvak on Bloomberg Radio. You might remember this Carol A few months ago, Luis Von Ahn, the founder and CEO of Duolingo, he made some comments on a podcast that got a lot of attention. He basically said ultimately he's not sure if there's anything computers can't really teach you and that, you know, teachers might not go away because they need to provide childcare and take care of kids. And schools do that. Yeah, but that AI the way it's moving, that's going to be teaching kids. Look, take it with a grain of salt. He's kind of talking his book because he has the app Duolingo that uses AI to teach people things, but got a lot of attention as you can imagine.

[Tim Stankavich]

Listen, if anything we learned in Covid though, the importance of, you know, kids being around other kids, being around teachers and people is socializing and socialization super, super important.

[Carol Massar]

Here's what Hugo Sarazin thinks about all this. He's CEO of the online learning and teaching marketplace Udemy. The company says it has 81 million learners around the world. It has had 120 million course enrollments in the last year, the Stock down about 14 and a half percent so far this year, it's got a market cap just north of $1 billion. He joins us from Miami. Hugo, welcome to the program. You guys are in the midst of this pivot from a learning platform to what you're calling a quote, AI powered skills acceleration platform. What's the difference?

[Hugo Sarazin]

It's, it's pretty, pretty profound. First of all, thank you for having me on the show. It's a pleasure to be here. Udemy, in its original version, ended up being the largest online platform on the B2C. And on the B2B side, we have, as you said on the learner, 80 million plus. But on the enterprise side, 17,000 enterprise are depending on us to learn things. Things from IT to business skills, to communication, to, you know, how, how to collaborate. So pretty broad. At the same time, there's a limitation. This is a distribution play that allows you to take learning in an asynchronous way. But with AI, we have the opportunity to change the game. And I think we're making a pretty big pivot to continuous learning, personalized learning, let's say now you and I take the same class. You may know, actually the first, you know, 30%, but we're going to run through the same class today. But with AI, I can learn and assess what you know and adapt the course in a way that, you know, focuses on the area where you need help. And then when you take the class, I can also notice what issue you're encountering and reinforce that through a lab, through an AI roleplay, in other words. So it's a pretty fundamental, fundamental pivot to the way we're going to deliver the reskilling of the workforce moving forward.

[Tim Stankavich]

Hugo, what are you learning from? I believe it's about 17,000 enterprise customers. I was looking at a recent press release from you guys that you, that you have. What do you learn from them? Because part of what you folks say is you are learning and you're taking in data from those enterprise customers. And what are you learning and then what are you building on that knowledge?

[Hugo Sarazin]

Yeah, we're spending a lot of time learning from our customer. We're a learning platform. We love to learn. I've been in the role six months. I've met more than 400 executive. So a lot of input. But if you turn to the specific, I think right now, this moment, everybody's trying to determine what's the best way to embrace AI. We have on our platform five times more classes being taken every minute. Eight people enroll in AI classes. So we're seeing the demand for that. At the same time, we're seeing the need for adaptive skills, creative thinking, collaboration, communication. That's up 40%. So we're seeing this duality and I think it's very interesting to see that as much as the technical skills are important, enterprises are looking for the human side and keep the human aspect of moving forward.

[Carol Massar]

How are your, your B2B sales right now? Carol mentioned some stats right there, but I'm curious about the environment that you see and what you're hearing from these customers and potential customers.

[Hugo Sarazin]

Yeah, so it's, it's. So we're 60% global. So it's a mix of North American EMEA, Asia Pacific. We are obviously continuing to grow not at the rate that we were growing during the pandemic where there was a very big discontinuity, but we're seeing some robust growth. At the same time, the uncertainty in the economy, there's a lot of wait and see. In some cases people are investing in technology and then are realizing that just the technology is not enough. So there's a catch up and a rush to bring in the reskilling. So it's a bit of a mixed set of signals, but for our business, we're lucky because we have something that is going to be required in the World Economic forum the next five years. 92 million people in developed countries will need to be reskilled for AI and really well positioned for that.

[Tim Stankavich]

Well, and it's interesting if I look at, you know, the FA function on the Bloomberg, which really pulls up your balance sheet and just looking at revenue, the mix between consumer and enterprise, you go back to 2019 or 2020 and it was largely consumer. But the shift has been kind of dramatic. Right. In terms of the percentage of revenues that is now enterprise, I think our data shows something like 63% of what you guys do. That's the growth, that's the model going forward.

[Hugo Sarazin]

It is. Well, we're going to continue to be in the consumer space. I think we've been making a very profound shift towards the enterprise space. It is, you know, we've got the leading platform in the market today. In the consumer space. We do have a business that maybe in the last few years we haven't invested sufficiently and then we're seeing some very interesting signals there too. I think right now, as you know, the job markets, the new graduates are struggling to find jobs. They may not have been prepared for what this economy is requiring and they turn to platforms like Unity to kind of, you know, a bit of a finishing School, they're, they're taking on a specific class to learn and they're building their portfolio of projects. So we're seeing a bit of a, a shift. But what we're going to do is we're going to try to capture that shift instead of via transactional course by course. We're now offering subscription and we're trying to be a place where you can continuously learn and evolve and set yourself career goals. And we're partnering with Indeed and other firms to facilitate that.

[Carol Massar]

Hey Hugo, just 30 seconds on this. Are you using AI to design the courses and actually do that content? How do you do that?

[Hugo Sarazin]

Yeah, so we internally, we have a learner team that focuses on how to use AI to personalize the experience. We have an instructor team that is finding ways to automate and streamline the process so that you can create the curriculum, you can create examples, you can generate images if that's what you needed. So we're making all of that super easy so that the instructor can spend their time where, you know, they're, they're applying their critical thinking, they're finding analogies, they're finding ways to engage the students in better ways.

[Tim Stankavich]

All right, we're going to leave it there. Hey, Hugo, thank you. Really appreciate it. Have a good weekend. Hugo Sarazin, he's chief executive officer of the online learning and teaching marketplace Udemy, joining us from Miami. Ah, come on. Why is this taking so long? This thing is ancient.

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