Coursera, Inc. (NYSE: COUR), the US-based online learning platform, recently announced its financial performance for the first quarter ended on March 31, 2023. According to its financial report, Coursera’s revenue for Q1 2023 was $147.6 million, a 23% increase from the same period last year, which was $120.4 million. The net loss for the first quarter was $32.4 million. In addition, Coursera announced ten new degree programs for working adults in Q1 2023.
The financial report shows that Coursera launched a new generative AI tool called Coursera Coach. This AI assistant aims to make learning more interactive and provide personalized feedback, as well as assist educators in creating more engaging content through AI-assisted course-building. Coursera demonstrated the use of Coursera Coach, which incorporates ChatGPT, at its 11th annual meeting in 2023. Coursera Coach can answer questions, provide feedback, summarize video lectures and other materials, offer career advice, and prepare learners for job interviews.
In addition, educators can use Coursera Coach to create courses and generate “course content, structure, description, tags, reading materials, assignments, and vocabulary lists” using prompts, as well as recommend materials from other courses on Coursera. Coursera also announced that learners will be able to translate “thousands of course reading materials, lecture video subtitles, quizzes, assessments, peer review guidance, and discussion prompts” using large-scale machine learning translation.
According to Jeff Maggioncalda, the CEO of Coursera, the launch of Coursera Coach is due to “the remarkable rise of generative AI that is creating new possibilities for personalized and interactive learning.” As businesses adopt generative AI to improve customer service and productivity, he also anticipates an unprecedented need for re-skilling, as up to 49% of workers are expected to delegate half or more of their tasks to large language models.
Many organizations and institutions are also using Coursera to provide new courses on AI and machine learning.
“The transformation of higher education has never been more urgent than it is now. We believe that emerging AI technologies will create a new era of skills for individuals, businesses, and governments worldwide,” said Jeff Maggioncalda in the financial report. “Coursera is rapidly expanding access to affordable, flexible, and job-relevant credentials, which learners and institutions will need to keep pace with our accelerating world.”
Coursera’s Q1 2023 revenue was $147.6 million, a 23% increase from the same period last year, which was $120.4 million. Coursera’s CFO, Ken Hahn, said, “We got off to a good start in 2023, and our Q1 performance reflects the continued demand for our brand and job-relevant credentials.” “As we discussed at our Investor Day last month, we are making good progress in the degree space, and we are pleased to announce that the area has returned to growth with the recent announcement of ten new degree programs designed for working adults.”
