Google’s “Introduction to AI” on Coursera has emerged as the most popular online course of 2026, attracting over 384,000 enrollments and surpassing every new course on edX and FutureLearn combined.
This single course represents the tip of a massive AI education iceberg, with over 2.7 million total enrollments going to AI-focused courses this past year and one in five new Coursera courses dedicated to artificial intelligence topics.
Google AI Course: AI Courses Dominate Every Platform
The Class Central 2026 report reveals that its catalog grew by over 100,000 courses and resources in 2025, with MOOC platforms collectively accommodating over 300 million learners, offering more than 25,000 courses, and launching over 2,000 online degrees.
Among the most popular new courses are “Learn to Code with Claude” from Anthropic, ethical hacking certifications, Python automation, and DeepSeek R1 AI projects for beginners.
AI Engineering tracks covering agentic AI and fine-tuning LLMs with QLoRA are among the fastest-growing certification categories.
Also read about: Google’s Skills Platform Gets 3,000 Free AI Courses
From Course Completion to Career Transformation
The online education landscape has evolved from simple course delivery to sophisticated career acceleration platforms.
CXL and Reforge have carved out premium territory by focusing exclusively on growth marketing and customer acquisition, offering courses that speak directly to practical business challenges.
The best platforms now combine expert instruction with community support and clear career outcomes.
Course platform marketing has also become a study subject itself, with their sophisticated email funnels, engagement-based segmentation, and retention strategies providing actionable intelligence for digital marketers.
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