Udemy and the Learning Revolution: How Instructors Shape Education’s AI Future

Hey instructors,

We understand that things are changing fast, and it’s 100% normal to wonder what that means for you as an instructor. But here’s what we are seeing on our end: learners don’t just want information, they want a real person to guide them through learning new subjects that they are passionate about.

Here’s what we have been working on…

Four Strategic Initiatives Launching:

Subscription Bonus - We’re excited to announce a new incentive to reward instructors’ contributions to Udemy’s growing subscription business. We aim to compensate instructors whenever their course landing page results in a consumer subscription sale. For 2026, we have allocated up to $2M USD to support this.

Instructor Subscription Phased Rollout - We’ve been listening to instructors’ feedback on engaging learners beyond the traditional methods of learning. With your feedback, we plan a phased rollout of a new experience around Instructor Subscriptions

This is a complementary format to help you directly engage with learners, build communities, and experiment with various content types!

AI-Powered Micro-learning - We’re going to be rolling out various AI-powered tools to help transform existing courses into microlearning experiences. This will aim to meet learners where they are, such as during work, on mobile, or to enforce brief study sessions.

Content Innovation Fund - Many of you are pioneers in your space, and we want to invest in your insights and content that’s leading the charge in your field! We are committing $2.5M USD for our Content Innovation Fund. This investment is dedicated to providing grants and resources to instructors who are developing new content formats, microlearning opportunities, and experimenting with subscription-based learning experiences.

Visit our blog post to learn more.

Have any thoughts? Feel free to share them in the comments below!

Teach on,

Ryan

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Comments

AlexGenadinik

Hi @RyanJaress - would you please be able to post where to sign up for these early programs. I saw the presentation on my phone, and wasn't

EdenMarco445

Wow super excited for whats to come!
would love to sign up for all initiatives :)

LawrenceMMiller

@RyanJaress On the subscriptions… you said that you can earn a bonus if a student signs up for a subscription from our course landing page. Is there something we need to add to our course landing pages to elicit this from a student? Some link, icon, explanation, etc.? Or, is that something that Udemy will add?

RonErez

Hi @RyanJaress

Very nice initiative. It all sounds promising. Thanks for sharing!

ThomasMitchell

I don’t think anyone in this forum would ever accuse me of being an optimist regarding Udemy - and I’d respond with “give me something to be optimistic about”.

But… I’m also willing to offer kudos when they are deserved. What I saw in the Front Row today does “seem” like a great move in the right direction - although I do worry about consumption minutes actually being negatively affected.

Today is the first day in quite a while where I feel like Udemy is actually trying to offer something not designed simply to placate us (ie. the insane 1:1 coaching offering that is never gonna work).

Despite removing several courses from the platform, including UfB, over the last month or so, I HAVE left the door ajar because despite my pessimism, I do hold out some hope that Udemy rights the ship.

What I saw today seems like a move in the right direction. Time will tell.

Boris035

Yeah….finally something to boost our motivation….to close the year in the right way!

KylePew

Listening to the Front Row presentation this morning, it sounded like we didn't need to do anything to our course landing pages. I assume, if the subscription originated from one of your course landing pages, that will be enough to flag it in the system to pay out the bonus. Is that correct, @RyanJaress

TonyAlicea

I, for one, want to say thank you and kudos to Udemy for listening to instructors, especially on the PP free trial and subscription bonus.

Times are tough for online education, and this feels like Udemy is recognizing the importance of instructors. It's a hopeful move, and a welcome one.

ZaneVella

That's correct, this will be handled internally - no need to take any action.

SivakamiS2017

This sounds very promising, @RyanJaress, thanks !
Are the Instructor Subscriptions only for Marketplace students, or also for UB students ?

rasu84

@RyanJaress I think you missed the instructor ProductionHub segment which was presented by Ava. I found it to be pretty cool and potentially useful for instructors as they navigate the ever evolving content-creation landscape.

Haritha 089

Great! It sounds very promising @RyanJaress. Thank you for the oppotunity.

LawrenceMMiller

Subscription bonuses are actually alive!!! Good work.

ValentinDespa

Thanks for putting these initiatives in motion. This feels like the kind of boost a lot of instructors have been hoping for as we head into 2026, which is probably going to be a difficult year.

Things are changing, no question. But if we keep experimenting and investing in our future, we’ll be in a better position than just sitting around looking at how things deteriorate.

We don't know what online education is going to look like in the next years, but I feel like Udemy is going in the right direction and there is a good chance things will turn around.

I must admit that the enthusiasm of people like Zane or Ava is contagious. :)

ThomasMitchell

I’ve been getting them for a couple years now. The way they are attributed now is what I think changed.

MrHJ

@ZaneVella @RyanJaress It is much simpler to provide students with a link to a landing page than a coupon link.

The new proposed design also seems to enhance search engine optimization and will likely improve the visibility of the courses.

This can be very good and give a real boost!

Regards

LawrenceMMiller

This is the first time it has appeared on my revenue report.

Parker

I'm excited for instructor subscriptions. However, I was excited for 1:1 too and at $150 hour it's not happening in my niche.

ThomasMitchell

I’m not allowing myself to get too excited yet about instructor subscriptions until I know how it works. Like, nobody is paying $10/mo for an instructor-specific sub when they can pay $14/mo for the entire Udemy catalog.

We’ll see how it goes.

Boris035

Well, maybe it will be more feasible if a student (for say $10/month) receives tokens/credits for (say) 1,000 courses – so he/she can create a hand-picked collection on his/her own. Just an idea…personalization…

P.S. Or, instead of individual courses, tokens/credits might be applied to a certain number of instructors!?

ThomasMitchell

Yeah, maybe. I’m curious to see how it’s implemented.

ValentinDespa

That's a fair point. The instructor's subscription needs to deliver extraordinary value so that the student sees the value in it. I