‘India should be our biggest market’: Coursera’s new CEO Greg Hart makes big India push to tap digital learning boom

Coursera’s new CEO, Greg Hart, is placing India at the centre of the company’s global growth and innovation strategy. In his first few months at the helm, Hart has pushed for investing heavily in local R&D and engineering talent, offering courses in Indian languages, partnering with state governments and universities, and realigning pricing—all aimed at tapping into India’s rising demand for digital skills and education.

“India should be our single largest market,” Hart told Fortune India in an exclusive conversation, adding that more than 50% of Coursera’s new tech investments are now being made in India. “If that doesn’t happen, it means we’ve missed a huge opportunity.”

India’s GenAI surge

India ranks second only to the US in total Coursera users, with 29.6 million learners. But it has already claimed the top spot globally in enrolments for Generative AI courses—a sign of the country’s thirst for next-gen skills.

“We actually see that reflected in the number of people who are enrolled specifically in GenAI courses,” Hart said. “Even though India is number two in terms of registered learners, it is number one for enrolments in GenAI. That number—2.5 million—has doubled year over year.”

However, as per recent data from the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE), only 2.2% of India’s workforce currently has the necessary skills for the AI-driven economy of tomorrow. Also, India ranks 46th on Coursera’s AI Maturity Index.

“If India doesn't move up the AI Maturity Index, it’s going to be very hard to capture that $1.5 trillion GDP potential AI is forecast to add by 2030,” Hart warned.

The urgency is real, and to bridge this gap, Coursera is firing on all cylinders.

India as an innovation engine

India has become a critical hub for Coursera’s global operations, with nearly one-third of its total workforce based in the country. Around 20% of the company’s product and engineering talent is now located here—and under CEO Greg Hart, that footprint is rapidly expanding.

“Our R&D teams in India are absolutely central to Coursera’s global innovation engine. One of their biggest focus areas is the enterprise business—all the features and capabilities we build to support companies using Coursera are developed right here. We've also significantly expanded our degrees team in India, which is now building the core capabilities for our full-fledged online degree programs in partnership with top-tier institutions like IIT Guwahati, Jindal Global University, and others. In fact, all the degree-specific features we’re launching globally are being built out of India,” he added.

Another unique team Coursera has in India is the Services Operations Center (SOC)—a cross-disciplinary unit that looks across the company to improve internal tools, streamline operations, and enhance learner experiences.

“Of the incremental investment we’ve approved since I joined as CEO, more than 50% of that is here in India—in R&D and in broader tech teams,” he said.

Language access

Hart’s long-term goal is to make every course on Coursera available in any language, both in text and dubbed versions. The company began this journey with machine learning translations in 2023, starting with the first few thousand courses. This included the top 4,000 courses, featuring content from universities like Yale, translated into Hindi. Now, more than half of the courses on the platform have been machine-translated into 26 different languages, and the company is focused on both—increasing the number of translated courses and the number of supported languages.

The company also recently launched AI dubbing, using which 300 courses have been translated into five different languages. “The goal is to continue to expand that to more languages and more courses. All of that work is being done by teams in India.”

At the moment, Hindi is already available, and the company has also introduced support for Odia. “My goal is for every course on Coursera to be available in all 26 major Indian languages,” Hart says. AI dubbing is being used to scale course delivery in other Indian languages.

Localised pricing

Historically, Coursera followed a uniform pricing strategy across countries. Coursera Plus in the US is $59 per month or $399 per year. Similarly, the Indian pricing is ₹5,068 per month or ₹34,275 per year. Hart admitted that Coursera’s US-based pricing model didn’t work in a price-sensitive market like India. The company is working towards making Coursera’s pricing in India more aligned with local economic realities and purchasing power.

Hart explained, “While it’s important to understand the cost of creating something, pricing must ultimately align with what people in a particular market can afford. If you price a product based on US dollar benchmarks and apply those levels globally—especially in markets like India—the adoption will be limited. Historically, a lot of what you could learn on Coursera was accessible for free, unless you wanted a certificate or additional features like Coach. But that model needs to evolve. Considering the value creation should work for both the learner and the business, we are moving towards a more localised approach—not just in how we price, but in how we think about accessibility, engagement, and long-term retention,” said Greg Hart, CEO of Coursera.

Govt partnerships and curriculum integration

Coursera has also responded by going beyond just content delivery. It’s working directly with Indian state governments and universities to embed industry-aligned professional certificates into formal academic programs.

In Odisha, for instance, Coursera is partnering with 16 universities through a government-backed initiative that integrates online certificates into degree credits. The goal is to train one lakh students.

He added, “We try to work very closely with governments, first of all, to understand what policies they are focused on, and then how we can help. That’s what’s happening here in India.”

Coursera is also betting big on dual-degree models in line with the National Education Policy 2020. For instance, in IIT Guwahati’s Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Data Science & Artificial Intelligence, 31% of students are enrolled in both an on-campus degree and the online Coursera program.

The India push, Hart believes, is not just about market expansion—it’s also a proving ground for Coursera’s broader global ambitions.

“The sheer scale and diversity of India represent a tremendous opportunity. If we can solve for India, we’ll be better equipped to address the challenges of learners around the world,” Hart added.