Photo credit: Solen Feyissa/Unsplash

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) course enrollments in the Middle East and North Africa have increased in the past year, suggesting a sharp rise in interest and capability building in advanced AI technologies, new research shows.

According to Coursera’s “Global Skills Report 2024,” the combined regions witnessed an 861% increase in GenAI course enrollments year-over-year, showing that “learners focus on cutting-edge skills to drive innovation and tackle regional challenges.”

Saudi Arabia’s GenAI enrollment rate outpaced the regional trend, posting  1,788% year-on-year growth. The kingdom also saw a year-on-year rise in cybersecurity learning at 65%, aligning with its efforts to train 40% of the workforce in data and AI skills by 2030.

The United Arab Emirates, which ranked first in the region for skill proficiency and second worldwide for business, saw a 1,102% year-on-year increase in GenAI enrollments. Researchers at Coursera also noted that UAE learners also focus on blockchain skills, aligning with the Emirates’s digital transformation.

Meanwhile, Egypt only recorded roughly one-third of Saudi Arabia’s GenAI enrollment growth, posting a 585% increase.

Overall, GenAI course enrollments surged by 1,060% globally over the past year as learners sought foundational AI skills.

Researchers evaluated skill proficiency across 109 countries by analyzing learner performance on various assessments, including quizzes and peer-reviewed tasks. The report incorporates third-party metrics and a sophisticated scoring system to benchmark and compare regional and global competencies, focusing on digital skills crucial for the future workforce.

Besides GenAI, blockchain, and cybersecurity, the Coursera report also delved into the global and regional balance between digital and human skills, professional certification trends, and job-related training.

Literacy amid the AI craze

The 2022 launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT ignited a global race toward AI literacy. In the job market, searches for GenAI jobs on Indeed, a popular employment website, increased nearly 4,000% in 2023, and openings for such jobs were up 30% over the same period. Data scientists were in demand by late last year per a CNBC report.

Just in the UAE, job opportunities in the information technology sector were projected to rise by 80%, driven by the demand for IT professionals versed in advanced technologies, including GenAI and machine learning.

This job market shifts come as Bloomberg Intelligence last year reported that GenAI is poised to reach $1.3 trillion over the next 10 years from a market size of just $40 billion in 2022.

The research predicts a 42% annual growth rate for the GenAI market, fueled initially by demand for training infrastructure and later by inference devices for large language models (LLMs). This growth will also lead to a $280 billion increase in software revenue, thanks to specialized AI assistants, infrastructure tools, and coding copilots. 

Cloud providers like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Google, and Nvidia are expected to be major beneficiaries as companies move more operations to the cloud to leverage these advancements.

Read more: AI key to accelerating fight against climate change — Bill Gates