AI Summit: India tops Gen AI enrolments globally on Coursera, logs 3 sign-ups per min, says CTO Mustafa Furniturewala

Coursera Chief Technology Officer Mustafa Furniturewala

• India leads global GenAI enrolments on Coursera with 4M sign-ups
• AI is transforming coding and software development processes
• Coursera enhances AI tools and local language content

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India has emerged as the global leader in Generative AI (GenAI) enrolments on Coursera, clocking over 4 million enrolments and recording nearly three sign-ups per minute, the company’s Chief Technology Officer Mustafa Furniturewala told Moneycontrol at AI Summit.

Furniturewala said the pace of technological change is 'extremely high', and with nearly 20 percent of the world’s working population expected to be in India, rapid upskilling and reskilling are critical. “We need to move from credential-based education to skill-based learning,” he said.

AI reshaping coding, software lifecycle

According to him, AI is already transforming coding and the broader software development lifecycle by removing the tedious parts of programming and taking on increasingly complex tasks.

“The skills that will matter are the ability to control agents well and provide the right context,” he said, pointing to the growing importance of what he described as “context engineering” - a shift from traditional prompt engineering to providing deeper, structured context to AI systems.

Professionals with strong domain knowledge, he said, are better positioned to leverage AI tools effectively. While many jobs will be augmented by AI, those who fail to upskill risk becoming less effective in the workplace.

India leads GenAI adoption

India’s high adoption of GenAI learning is being driven by its young demographic profile and a large pool of talent eager to learn and upgrade skills, Furniturewala said.

The most popular AI course currently on the platform is 'Introduction to Generative AI', along with broader AI fluency programmes.

Coursera, founded by AI pioneers, has integrated AI deeply into its own offerings. The company has launched tools such as Coach and Course Builder, which enable hyper-personalised learning experiences for individuals. It is also partnering with foundational AI companies to enhance course delivery.

Innovating from India

Furniturewala said Coursera has over 400 employees in India across product, engineering and design functions, and more than 3,500 courses have been created in the country.

“We are innovating in India for India,” he said, adding that the company works closely with multiple state governments and corporates such as Reliance Industries.

Through AI-driven translation and audio dubbing, Coursera is scaling content delivery across multiple Indian languages, broadening access to digital learning.

The company also collaborates with Indian IT firms, particularly during large-scale digital transformation projects, to enable workforce skilling in emerging technologies.

As AI capabilities expand, Furniturewala said 'context engineering' is likely to become a hot topic in the coming years, underscoring the shift from merely writing effective prompts to designing richer contextual frameworks for AI systems.