Coursera Inc To Hold Education and AI A Conversation with Chairman and Co-founder Andrew NG Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Stephen Sheldon - William Blair & Company, L.L.C. - Analyst : Well, just to start, I think just given, your position in this whole ecosystem and the visibility you have into the broader AI ecosystem. Can you talk some about the more transformative applications of generative AI that you're seeing today, especially those that might not be as widely known. What are you seeing out there?

Question: Stephen Sheldon - William Blair & Company, L.L.C. - Analyst : And what -- I guess, when you think about -- I guess, what has surprised you the most about the way generative AI is being leveraged today across industries? Are there -- and are things generally moving faster or slower than you would have expected two, three years ago? How fast are things moving?

Question: Stephen Sheldon - William Blair & Company, L.L.C. - Analyst : Yeah, that's fascinating. Maybe just in that context with the pace of innovation, which industries do you think could be the most impacted as we think about the next 5 to 10 years due to AI's proliferation? Are there some that are likely to be massively reshaped as we think about that time frame?

Question: Stephen Sheldon - William Blair & Company, L.L.C. - Analyst : Got it. And maybe this is an education focused, a certain degree focused conversation. There are predictions that education could be one of the industry's most impacted. I guess how are you thinking about it? Do you agree with that?

Question: Stephen Sheldon - William Blair & Company, L.L.C. - Analyst : Yeah, that's helpful. So I guess maybe stepping back, what do you think -- as you think about Coursera's opportunity here, what do you think differentiates Coursera's generative AI capabilities and offerings? And are there particular elements of how you design the content, the platform, the data, et cetera, that you think are uniquely valuable?

Question: Stephen Sheldon - William Blair & Company, L.L.C. - Analyst : Got it. Makes sense, and that's all really helpful. And I think the focus on the learner experience has been very evident. Maybe shifting to the demand environment. How do you think the expansion of AI could impact demand for Coursera's solutions over the coming years? And maybe from the perspective of both individual consumers that are trying to learn about upskill themselves and leveraging AI and at the enterprise level for the B2B side?

Question: Stephen Sheldon - William Blair & Company, L.L.C. - Analyst : Yeah. That's really interesting. Maybe just on -- you brought it up, but the -- I think there have been some estimates, that 20% to 30% of the workforce might need to upskill or reskill or just generally be retrained just as jobs get more or less displaced to a certain degree by AI. I think you said you don't know when that will happen. Do you think that will happen? And do you think that is an opportunity for Coursera?

Question: Stephen Sheldon - William Blair & Company, L.L.C. - Analyst : Makes sense. I'm just hoping Equity Research stays relevant here for quite a while. But I think you're right, I think everyone is going to need to focus on how do you leverage AI and make yourself more productive. And maybe shifting that into maybe the more enterprise focused. Companies, I think, have been -- you talked about the cyclicality, I think of company spending. Companies have been spending less in recent years on learning and development. I think Coursera and some peers have been talking about stabilization there. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 04, 2024 / 6:30PM, COUR.N - Coursera Inc To Hold Education and AI A Conversation with Chairman and Co-founder Andrew NG What do you think it will take for business spending to pick back up? And are companies starting to think about, I've got this workforce, I need to make them more productive, how do I train my workforce to focus on -- or to leverage AI and specific tests? Are you starting to see that pick up at all?

Question: Stephen Sheldon - William Blair & Company, L.L.C. - Analyst : Got it. And maybe I think one thing that I've heard come up is just with the expansion of generative AI and content authoring tools as well. The companies could start to in-source more of their learning content by leveraging generative AI and therefore, rely less on external vendors like Coursera or, I guess, even academic institutions. So is that a risk you think about what are you seeing from that whole in-sourcing concept?

Question: Stephen Sheldon - William Blair & Company, L.L.C. - Analyst : Yeah. And I think that whole concept of personalized learning. I think people have a lot of different definitions of what that is and what that can look like. But -- and it still seems like we're far away, but we might be getting closer it seems like with some of the generative AI capabilities, where content could be specifically tailored to one person. maybe --

Question: Stephen Sheldon - William Blair & Company, L.L.C. - Analyst : And maybe shifting then to -- that's a good -- when you think about, as you've created courses because you've added a lot of content, created a lot of content on Coursera and through the deep learning. I guess how have you leveraged AI tools for new courses at both Coursera and DeepLearning.AI?

Question: Stephen Sheldon - William Blair & Company, L.L.C. - Analyst : Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Maybe shifting then to strategic partnerships. What is Coursera doing from a strategic partnership perspective to enhance AI capabilities? How important are these partnerships to Coursera's overall business objectives? What are you seeing there?

Question: Stephen Sheldon - William Blair & Company, L.L.C. - Analyst : Well, and that's -- it brings up an interesting, like you're very well connected. You get a lot of visibility. How closely are you taking the visibility that you have and what's going on in the broader AI ecosystem and trying to leverage that and try to pull that into Coursera's product? Kind of helping Coursera navigate the changes that are coming? Are you taking some of that? Even if you can't share specifics on what's going on, can you take some of that insight and help it to steer where Coursera is heading?

Question: Stephen Sheldon - William Blair & Company, L.L.C. - Analyst : And maybe then, you brought up the whole talent concept. What -- from your perspective, what is Coursera doing to attract and retain top talent when you think about especially AI talent and machine learning talent? What are you guys doing to attract talent there?

Question: Stephen Sheldon - William Blair & Company, L.L.C. - Analyst : That's helpful. It makes a ton of sense. I guess, I'm going to ask what about education and then maybe shift to the future in an AI world. But a lot of discussion, I think, recently about changes for the Department of Education under the new administration. You're an educator yourself. You obviously are very connected in the broader education ecosystem. How are you thinking about those changes and the potential impact to Coursera, I guess, and the general broader edtech landscape?

Question: Stephen Sheldon - William Blair & Company, L.L.C. - Analyst : Well, that hits close to -- I've got very young kids right now. I'm kind of thankful that they're not approaching that decision right now because I have no clue of what I would tell them would be the most impactful course of study as you think about moving into the higher education ecosystem to that point. You don't know necessarily what skills are going to be the most relevant. There are probably some base level skills that will always be relevant, but it's tough to predict. I think it's gotten way tougher to predict what types of roles will be in demand even three or four years out.

Question: Stephen Sheldon - William Blair & Company, L.L.C. - Analyst : I've got 7, 4 and 1 -- just turning 1.

Question: Stephen Sheldon - William Blair & Company, L.L.C. - Analyst : Sure. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 04, 2024 / 6:30PM, COUR.N - Coursera Inc To Hold Education and AI A Conversation with Chairman and Co-founder Andrew NG

Question: Stephen Sheldon - William Blair & Company, L.L.C. - Analyst : I love that. Yeah. I will take that to heart with my kids. Maybe now shifting a little bit more to the future. And I guess you were talking about the different kind of layers of the tech stack. But just as we think about tech stacks in the future, what's your view -- I think this has become a bigger debate, the view of software as a role. As I think there's a narrative out there that software could become less important over time, potentially disintermediated by AI, especially on the workflow side and the application side. But at the same time, the data that's captured, I think, within software when serving as the system of record, at least right now, is arguably becoming more important. What's your view on the role of software and how that can evolve over the next 5 to 10 years?

Question: Stephen Sheldon - William Blair & Company, L.L.C. - Analyst : Got it. Yeah, that's make sense. I know we're coming close on time. maybe the regulatory framework. How do you think about regulatory frameworks and how they might need to evolve and to really to drive the right balance, I think, between innovation and protecting the broader public as we think about generative AI?

Question: Stephen Sheldon - William Blair & Company, L.L.C. - Analyst : Yeah. Got it. And I have this as a quick hitter. I don't think this is an actual quick hitter. How far away are we from more artificial general intelligence? What are the biggest challenges to get there? Should we, as a society, want to get there?

Question: Stephen Sheldon - William Blair & Company, L.L.C. - Analyst : Got it. Well, this is the last question. We covered a lot. This is more for me. If you knew what you know now about AI and the state of the education ecosystem, would you steer Coursera in any different directions? If you thought back to when you founded it, I think it's 2011, would you do anything differently with the asset?

Question: Stephen Sheldon - William Blair & Company, L.L.C. - Analyst : Sounds good. Well, we will end it there. Thank you so much, everyone, for joining, and a huge thanks to Andrew for taking time out of his busy schedule for us today. I would highly recommend Andrew's content on Coursera. I'm currently taking the generative AI course, AI for everyone, Generative AI for everyone. So making my way through that now. I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their Wednesday and please reach out with any follow-up questions. Thanks, everyone.