Coursera-AWS Research Reveals Tech Leaders Prioritizing Cloud, AI Skills to Drive Transformation

By Mustafa Furniturewala, Chief Technology Officer, Coursera

Today’s technology leaders face unprecedented transformation challenges as cloud and AI reshape how technical work is performed. To understand how technology leaders are navigating these challenges, Coursera has partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to survey senior technology executives leading digital transformation initiatives. The results, released today in the new report From Cloud to AI: How Tech Leaders Are Investing in Skills Development to Drive Transformation, reveal how these senior decision-makers are prioritizing skills development demands, balancing AI implementation and human capabilities, and structuring their transformation roadmaps.

Key findings:

• For tech leaders, it’s not just about AI. Though both cloud and GenAI transformation are key three-year goals, tech leaders are prioritizing the development of foundational skills like cloud, data, and cybersecurity alongside AI skills.
  • The majority of technology leaders agree that Cloud (95%) and GenAI (91%) transformation are key business goals for the next three years. 
  • When identifying critical skills for the next three years, leaders prioritize cloud skills (63%), data skills (58%), cybersecurity skills (54%), and AI skills (47%).
  • The number one driver of urgency for skills development among technology leaders is keeping pace with technology. 

• Technology leaders are preparing for automation to transform their teams, workflows, and workplace demands. Respondents expect that they and their teams will see up to half of their tasks automated by AI within three years, while 86% anticipate that at least one-fifth of their organization’s code will be AI-generated or AI-assisted in the same time frame.
  • Nearly every respondent anticipates some of their own tasks will be augmented with AI within the next three years, and more than half (52%) anticipate that 30-50% of their own tasks will be automated—freeing up time for more strategic work. This is mirrored in how technology leaders (53%) anticipate the automation of tasks will impact the teams that they manage.
  • Nearly all (99%) respondents anticipate that their codebases will be partially AI generated or developed with AI assistance in the next 3 years—and 86% percent of tech leaders anticipate that up to 20 to 50% of their codebase will be either AI-generated or developed with AI assistance.
  • More than three quarters of respondents (78%) believe that all technical roles addressed in this survey will be impacted in some way by task automation due to developments in AI in the next three years. Software developer (42%) and systems developer roles (41%) are anticipated to experience the greatest degree of impact.

• Despite increasing levels of automation, leaders emphasize that human contributions remain irreplaceable: 88% say AI transformation goals will not succeed without greater investment in talent development.
  • Sixty-three percent of technology leaders agree that non-technical teams consistently underestimate the resources and training needed to achieve GenAI objectives.
  • Most technology leaders (72%) expect new hires, regardless of their specific role, to understand how generative AI could be applied to their work tasks; however, a similar number of leaders (74%) acknowledge they cannot depend on new hires alone to fulfill AI skills gaps.
  • Eighty-eight percent of leaders agree that planned AI investments will not succeed without increasing investments in training, and 77% recognize that upskilling is essential to realizing transformation goals over the next 12-18 months. 
  • The majority of technology leaders (86%) report moderate to significant productivity increases from skills development, with enhanced performance (72%), greater workforce agility (67%), and increased employee engagement (59%) as top benefits.

• Tech leaders believe training is most valuable when it simulates real-world challenges—prioritizing practical, hands-on learning experiences that provide employees with an opportunity to immediately apply learned skills. 
  • Most technology leaders believe that hands-on practice applying new skills (60%), high-quality content authored by industry experts (56%), and being able to customize training content for team needs (55%) are critically important factors when it comes to choosing an online learning platform.
  • When creating hands-on learning experiences for technical teams, most technology leaders prioritize provision of real-world projects that are directly relevant to work (60%), practical skills assessments (56%), and risk-free experimentation (51%) as the most valuable elements. 

Our global study, conducted between March and April 2025, captures insights from over 750 director-level or higher leaders in IT, product, and engineering, working at large enterprise organizations with more than 1,000 employees and annual revenues exceeding $100M USD. Their responses offer strategic insights into how organizations are seeking to successfully integrate cloud infrastructure, AI capabilities, and talent development to drive competitive advantage in an increasingly automated future.
Access the full set of insights from the Technology Leaders’ Survey here.