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A first look at the AI skills platform we're building, and what it means for you

UdemyInstructorTeam

Instructors,

Over these past months, I've committed to keep you posted as our direction takes shape. Today, I'm excited to share a first look at what we've been working on to bring together the best of Coursera and Udemy into one platform.

Our internal code name for it is Helix. Built for the AI era, personalized to every learner, it puts your expertise at the center of how the world builds skills.

Helix works in two parts: Helix Path and Helix Adaptive.

Helix Path helps a learner or an organization turn a goal into the skills behind it, then recommends the best way to learn them across our combined catalog in a personalized learning path. Your courses take part from day one, exactly as they are, recommended as the stages and destinations along the way.

Helix Adaptive is a new, personalized way to learn toward a verified skill. It starts from the skill a learner is building, then teaches, practices, assesses, and adjusts continually until they can do something they couldn't before. Because Adaptive may incorporate selected lessons, videos, readings, or other learning materials from your courses into personalized learning experiences, it will be a separate, opt-in opportunity.

Design phases begin later this year, and Helix is expected to be broadly available to enterprise customers in the first half of 2027.

I hope you'll join me and our Chief Product Officer, Patrick Supanc, at our Front Row Event on September 17th. We’ll take a closer look at Helix, answer your questions, and talk through how you can take part.

Thank you for the expertise and care you bring to your learners every day. None of what's ahead works without you, and I'm looking forward to building it together.

With appreciation,
Marni Baker-Stein
Chief Content Officer

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Comments

CarlosMartinez

This sounds like an interesting direction, and I’m looking forward to learning more about how Helix will evolve. I hope this new platform can create value across the entire ecosystem: supporting the long-term financial sustainability of the platform, providing a better learning experience for students, and also creating sustainable opportunities for instructors who invest significant time and effort in creating, maintaining, and continuously updating high-quality content. Thanks Marni for keeping us informed and for giving instructors an early look at what is being developed.

One small note: at least at the moment I’m writing this, the “first look” link to the Coursera blog does not seem to be working. It currently returns a routing error.

VascoPatricio_ExecCoach

Very excited for the new platform, and for the future!

And also relieved we can now publicly say "Project Helix" 😂

Very excited for the path customization. I think the most valuable is the "loop". Whether it's verification or content delivery, it's not a single, one-and-done step; it's now a loop that iterates and "churns" until the person really masters the skill. That change alone seems foundational (and will surely become "sticky" with learners). Besides all of the other metric and dashboard-related features ofc.

Go Coursera and Udemy!

RyanJaress

Appreciate the callout @CarlosMartinez! The link has since been fixed.

Codingdidi

Excited to see how Helix develops! The combination of personalised paths and continuous adaptive learning sounds like a great way to improve student engagement and retention. Looking forward to tuning in on September 17th to hear more about how instructors can best participate.

AulaGEOAcademy

This looks like a very promising direction. One question I’d love to understand better: with Helix Adaptive potentially using individual lessons, videos, or other materials from an instructor’s courses, how are you thinking about attribution and instructor compensation when content is consumed as part of an adaptive experience rather than through the original course?

Col (Dr) Shabbar Shahid (Veteran)

Thank you for sharing. I am convinced that better days are ahead…

CristianVlad

Looks interesting, let's see how it develops and how it will work for us

Art_by_Benjamin

Others have noted it before, so have I, but it's pretty clear now you're going to leave a huge part of the teacher community behind. For those of us that teach practical skills and focus on non-business skills, which are a lot of teachers on Udemy, there will be no room. What will happen to us? We're obviously no fit for your ai skills platform. Will Udemy as we know it still be a platform or will it close sooner or later. An honest answer would be appreciated, since so far questions from teachers like me, who teach practical drawing and painting skills, have been ignored.

gregwondra

This is great…….for the learner (which is certainly important) but….

Know who can pivot faster than human instructors? Give learners exactly what they need when they need it? Adapt to their needs almost instantly? (Hint, it's not you, human).

TerryMcGonigle

I would prefer for udemy to invest in the fundamental infrastructure of the website, for years I have been getting complaints from students that they cannot get consistent playback on the videos.

As cool as AI tools are, I wish we would focus on the fundamentals first.

First and foremost we sell video courses, but we lose students because we cannot even provide that consistently.

KylePew

Thank you for sharing.

Just read the GRADED ROLE PLAY section, where do I add these to my courses? Or is this something only available to enterprise subscribing customers? It would be great to have these in the course so the instructor can set the rubric.

Boris035

In general, it looks awesome. Yet, can you add more colors to learning from experts and practicing with the Role Play feature, with an emphasis on the Role Play activities?

Simply put, who will create all those Role Play activities across all possible topics? The client, your AI, or maybe you'll just recycle the existing Role Play activities from the library, created by instructors?

How will this work for all of us (instructors) from the financial perspective? Should we keep building those Role Plays or focus on core educational programs (like courses) instead?

I really appreciate any help you can provide.

Boris

P.S. If you would like us to create more Role Play activities - what kind would you prefer? For example, complex interconnected Role Play activities (like a standalone product as a package), or should each Role Play activity be a standalone product so you can easily extract it and transfer it to the specific student's needs?

Coach.Hector

I'm not sure that companies start designing graded role plays... I think that should run by the instructor or at least be optional, take the course or design your own... to accredit and deliver the course certificate... like the certification exams.

Coach.Hector

Thanks, Marni — see you on the 17th.

One suggestion on Graded Role Play: instructors could design them for companies. We already know the scenarios and how to build them; L&D teams have the need but not always the time.

Worth considering as a way for us to take part.

KylePew

Personally, I'd like to create a graded role play, with rubric, for all students in the course, not just the students going through a pro-business plan. This would play nicely into the idea that students are looking for a path to learning. If a student comes away from the course with some formal validation, beyond a certificate, a portfolio piece, it would be a win for all.

BillDianAud

Interesting direction. Recently I've been reconsidering my overall strategy.

I have a book on Amazon. I have a course on Udemy. I even spent the money and time to get the course certified for professional ce from the International Coaching Federal.

Revenue? Laughable.

So obviously the big dogs do not see or help the micro-pups.

My new concept is to remove myself from these gigantic platforms.

I now have removed my book from Amazon. I have written books 2 and 3. Book 4 is conceived as is courses 2 and 3.

But the question is why should I commit a decade of my life's work to Udemy Coursera? Given that if I do, books, courses, intellectual property, are locked in for life!

Evergreen is great, if it works. Otherwise, what is it?

The grand plan may also not work any better, but at least I haven't locked it up.

I'm open to persuasion.

The grand plan is one integrated set of courses, video guides, AI guided user flows, books and other content that supports it all. But I can't see how the new direction supports me as I develop it.

For one thing, how does Udemy Coursera help me with discoverablity?

Sure if you want an engineer to get up to speed on python its in demand. People like me? We require something sophisticated.

Coach.Hector

Totally agree.

Esther

I don't find this particularly promising. To me it looks like a concept that is made to sound impressive in theory and will fail in practice. As others have pointed out, the platform is in shambles with all the bugs, non-functionality and poorly implemented features that nobody asked for. Not to mention a large portion of frustrated and demotivated instructors. I think the number of people who are crazy about working within AI made environments is overestimated while the number of people who want not only human directed learning but also be in control and make their own decisions is most likely larger than platforms like this believe or try to make us believe.

I've worked in education for decades, IRL and on platforms, uni, corporations, no matter, and one recurring problem I've seen more often than I can count is that people use tools on higher and higher levels when they cannot make them work perfectly on a low level, somehow assuming that the low level stuff is not as important or will take care of itself. It never does. The low level stuff is what ultimately brings the whole structure to a fall.

Apart from that, the promised skill development through AI directed learning and AI chosen paths and materials will not produce more skilled and certainly not highly skilled learners, at least not above entry-level. Skill is not about learning this bit and that bit in the right order. It is about searching, trying, failing, correcting course, understanding, deeper understanding, developing new, original thoughts - this cannot be created by a cookie cutter AI learning path that will always be based on less information than a learner and an instructor have, and there will never be a single creative thought in it.

PuneetGupta453

Thanks for the new direction. Hopefully, this turns out good for both the organization and the instructors. Please make the system transparent with metrics for instructors, unlike the PP which is very opaque.

SivakamiS2017

Thanks for that update, Marni, @UdemyInstructorTeam. It certainly looks exciting !

Please let us know what the revenue implications will be.
I am sure you understand that this is a huge area of worry for many of us.
For Helix Path, is it minutes watched, or will that be a new measure ?
And for Helix Adaptive, how will we be paid ?

I think thats an important thing for us to know before we decide whether to Opt-in or not (for Helix Adaptive).

RNA

This, Hugging Face Incident (read the METR report not news) and Navier–Stokes Millennium Prize Problem (ongoing situation). AI displacement in near future (for most instructors to be specific) is imminent irrespective of how good AI adoption is going to be. If it fails there will always be more than enough humans to undo and resume. Cumbersome but doable.

Simply assume what if only the manager is human (for now) to give directions and rest is just data curation to train an instance of base model to accomplish certain project. On demand employee(s) from Enterprise's DNA! ( Ah! now I get it. )

We signed off our value under the GenAI agreement long ago. I am neutral about the situation (probably even resigned) because no human has ever been prioritized over profits by an enterprise. That's the business model and it's the contract we accepted. Looking forward to hear words "revenue share" in this context … but …

We’re taking a phased, customer-centric approach, working closely from the earliest stage with a select group of participating partners and customers to help shape the product experience, verified capability model, and enterprise workflows, » while also equipping instructors with new modalities and expanded reach. « (What is this part?)

Clarity is the new Charity. Anyway…

ValentinDespa

Thanks for sharing this. Looks very ambitious.

I am very curious to see how the evaluation of skills will work across such a wide range of topics.

Dheeru

Thanks for the update, Marni. Like few others instructors, I am concerned around how this might impact current revenues. I have mainly one top-rated course for the last decade and has been doing well and I've been working full-time on it. Obviously, the first concern for me was how would this affect my course. What if my only course loses out on visibility due to this new change and it would be a huge problem for me :)

I have couple of questions:

Will the brand of existing Udemy courses be taken into account. For example, if there is a decade old proven top course on Udemy with 100k+ students with 25k reviews and has generated million dollars in revenue, will this course continue to shine. Will these stats be taken into account in the new platform or will it be like a brand new course starting from scratch and would have to prove its worth again.
Will Udemy platform exist independently of the new integrated site

Also, currently with UFB courses, sometimes it could be that a manager (or professor) evaluated the courses and is recommending the best ones to their team. So, there is a human there making decisions as certain subjects are better explained in certain courses. Will AI be able to differentiate that a particular lecture on topic X in course A is better explained compared to a lecture on same topic in course B. If this is not effective, then it can be a problem.

In general, some of the objectives seems good: (i) Evaluating what has been learnt is really important. Currently some students do the course only to show a certificate to their organization (Company/University). (ii) Suggesting next steps.

vakotron

Yeah, it seems uninspired. But it has some good parts too. I'm not against AI being incorporated into learning. But doing it just for the sake of "that's the future" isn't really going to turn into much. If a skill can be meaningfully taught by AI, then AI can do that task and you don't need human learning it.

Both Coursera and Udemy on they're own have learned that enterprise is what pays higher margins and can get them to profitability. So they're in communication with their enterprise clients to find what's their pain points and how they can serve them. But I think generally everyone is pretty confused about the future. So are Coursera/Udemy and their enterprise clients. Very animated ideas about the future of work gets thrown around and they're all chasing it a little bit dazed.

When Jeff Bezos was asked what does he think how things will change in the future, he answered that he doesn't think much about what will change in the future, but he thinks about what will not change. What's for sure going to stay. Will people want products cheaper in the future? Yes. Will people want faster delivery? Yes.

Maybe Udemy should think a little more like Bezos and ask, what's not going to change? Will learners want a human educator? Yes. Will learners want closer, easier contact with their teachers? Yes. Will learners want a community? Yes.

Right now it seems like

PuneetGupta453

I thought Udemy+Coursera was working towards creating a "cohort" based online classes as part of its offering. Is there a plan around it?

Farah_Rustom

Dear Marni and the Udemy Team,

Regarding "A first look at the AI skills platform we're building, and what it means for you" — this adaptive platform marks a huge turning point for online teaching. At NextGen AI Lab, our core mission is to help teachers build AI skills by promoting safe AI frameworks that support UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4: Quality Education). Our focus is making sure that as technology moves fast, no teacher or student is left behind. The personalized setup of Helix Path and Helix Adaptive matches our active-learning model perfectly.

We focus on changing passive video watching into active classroom practice using practical projects and real-world role-play simulations. To make sure these steps lead to real classroom success, instructors need both clear student data tracking and full creative control.

As we look toward the Front Row Event on September 17th, I look forward to learning more about how these updates impact our courses:

Helix Payouts & Rules: How will instructor credit and earnings work when single lessons or video clips are used inside the modular Helix Adaptive system?
Helix Student Tracking: How will instructor dashboards change under Helix Path and the Personal Plan to show student countries, verifying exactly when learners watch videos, finish projects, and complete role-plays to help us give localized support?
Helix Grading Systems: How can human instructors keep the power within the Helix platform to build and change our own grading scales for these interactive student activities?

Thank you, Marni and the Udemy team. NextGen AI Lab is fully ready to work together to grow safe, inclusive AI training across this new platform!

SantiTacoronte

I watched the Helix video. Did I understand correctly that a person might be recommended a learning path with a mix of different courses and activities? Or do you mean that if someone seems to need storytelling, we recommend a storytelling course?

Boris035

@Esther - you might be right. The more I experiment with Role-Play activities, the more I believe only a small fraction of students are looking for something like that because it requires a lot of thinking and active engagement. Most people will skip it. Nevertheless, it can be an awesome tool for building capabilities.

However, there's one element no one is talking about: what does it mean to be "customer-centered" from the Udemy for Business perspective? It's no longer about students (or instructors). UfB customers are companies looking for "verified skills", as stated above. Since they are paying, companies want control over "capability-building" outcomes.

It might work well for them (companies) and Coursera/Udemy. This time, students will be pressured. And we still don't have sufficient information to conclude how it will affect us (instructors) - we can only hope for the best.

At least, that's my perspective.

Boris

MyNetworkTraining

This is a great project, no doubt, but would it bring the good days back to us (instructors) as for the revenue?

Mik365

I think this is a great idea in theory, but I’m not convinced it will necessarily translate into a better learning experience in practice long-term.

I’m not sure how many actual workers or employees would prefer having AI guide them through what they should learn, rather than simply finding the right course, learning from an experienced instructor, and then using their own ChatGPT they've groomed themselves to brainstorm ideas or ask follow-up questions. Adding another AI layer to the learning process could potentially make the experience more cumbersome rather than more useful.

I’m also skeptical about AI determining what someone’s learning or career path should be. There is value in having an experienced professional, instructor, mentor, or manager who understands that individual human beings goals and the realities of their particular industry. An AI can make recommendations based on data, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it has the professional judgment to determine what someone actually needs.

I’ve also found the AI Assistant to be fairly limited in its usefulness so far, and I feel the Personal Plan has already made the overall user experience more convoluted. There seem to be more and more layers being added between the learner and the actual instructor and course. I thought Learn Vector was built for this? Coursera sure, but all three brands doing the same thing?

I think there needs to be more emphasis on simplicity in how these products are developed and delivered. AI can absolutely be useful in education, but adding AI to more parts of the learning experience doesn’t automatically make the experience better, we've learned that with customers and users current take on Udemy.

Sometimes the best learning experience is still very simple: find the right expert, take their course, learn from them, and then apply what you’ve learned.

SivakamiS2017

Also, would Helix now be the only option available to Enterprise Customers, post launch in 2027 ? Or would the current catalog and search based platform still be available to those who don't opt for Helix ?

I am hoping all (or most of) our questions will be answered in the Front Row Event. @UdemyInstructorTeam
Thanks !

gregwondra

I'm ALL for learners learn more.

But I'm failing to see how instructors benefit from any of this…

RNA

Slightly off topic, please post these announcements behind some access gate within the forum which only instructors (ideally published, but few things people in process of first publication also need, so tricky) can access. The open access seems to be used by people and/or bots to create threads using response posts from here in Studio U that seem to resonate with at least a few to start conversations and lead to more fodder for spamming and phishing. Discussions should continue but only among the community.

The count of members jumping in thousands within weeks seems odd.

+ @UdemyInstructorTeam

BryanLamb

So WE must work harder to create more involved "Role Play" scenarios… and some new algorithm of yours will pick apart our courses to even further reduce our watch minutes… and pit us against "Brands" at the same time. Sounds like a winner.

BryanLamb

It will only make things worse. Work harder and get less view minutes.

AhmedBaraka

Following the Helix announcement, I've been thinking through what this actually means for the learning experience, not just for instructors.

The concept has real merit. Personalization and mastery-based progression are well-supported by pedagogy research, and a system that adapts to where a learner actually is, rather than forcing everyone through the same fixed curriculum, could be a genuine improvement.

But I have concerns about execution. A course isn't just a collection of facts. It has a teaching style and a narrative flow that help concepts stick. Breaking courses into fragments and reassembling them with content from other instructors risks a disjointed experience: technically accurate, but harder to follow. Quality control also gets much harder at scale curating from 30,000+ contributors' fragments is a far bigger challenge than surfacing a handful of well-rated full courses. And there's a risk of optimizing for "provable skill" over durable understanding, teaching to assessment checkpoints rather than deep comprehension.

The idea is sound. Whether it delivers depends entirely on execution.

SivakamiS2017

Another thing worth thinking about is the fact that the current UB platform is generating revenue.
Yes, the growth is slowing … and the NRR and renewals may be coming down (probably because instructors have lost some of their motivation post revenue decline). But it's still a working model. It's not broken !

I really hope that Helix remains an add-on or premium offering.