AI is transforming industries and jobs in India. That’s motivating professionals to use edtech services to upskill and advance their careers.
To find out what professionals seek when upskilling for the age of AI, and how they go from discovery to decision-making about which courses to take, Google and Kantar conducted new research on their enrolment journeys.
Our findings below can help your education business better reach, engage, and convert professionals.
And to help you supercharge business growth, we share strategies for using AI-powered marketing and edtech innovations to win over learners, as leading brands like Emeritus, Great Learning, and upGrad have successfully done.
What professionals seek in courses to prepare for the age of AI
Professionals are upskilling to stay relevant and progress in their roles, which they see being impacted by AI, our research found.
In fact, 60% of surveyed professionals are actively considering AI’s influence on their roles.1
Those considerations are reflected in their course category choices: AI and machine learning are their No. 2 choice, after coding and programming.2
And those who enrol in AI-related courses aren’t just from the technology sector. They’re from a wide range of industries, particularly finance, manufacturing, education and healthcare.3
To tailor courses that satisfy professionals from such varied backgrounds, your edtech business needs to understand their top motivations for upskilling.
Our survey shows that they look for courses that help them advance their careers, stay relevant to industry shifts, and upskill in AI.
Learners’ focus on career advancement shapes the factors they use to evaluate and choose courses. From our survey, here are their top factors:
- Career services and placement support
- Course curriculum
- Course flexibility
- Reputation of university or institution
So to make your brand stand out for these professionals, go beyond merely delivering content to customising value-added learning experiences.
For example, offer career coaching, practical real-world examples, and interview preparation help, which surveyed professionals say are essential features for a positive user experience.4
To find such offerings, professionals research a wide range of education providers. And their top two enrolment choices are: Indian edtech platforms, favoured by junior professionals for their flexible, affordable courses; and universities, which senior professionals turn to for executive programmes.5
How professionals discover and decide on upskilling courses
Our survey found that 63% of learners feel “overwhelmed by the number and similarity of course options.”6 And to get clarity and confidence in their decisions, most professionals turn to Google Search and YouTube.
In fact, 77% of professionals use Google Search and/or YouTube for initial discovery,7 and 73% use them for detailed research when making their final decision.8
Given how professionals discover and decide on courses, it’s critical for your brand to advertise across digital touchpoints — especially Google and YouTube. Our survey found that 86% of learners recall seeing an online ad while researching courses, with Google Search (81%) and YouTube (73%) being the top two platforms where they saw them.9
Additionally, 75% of learners find ads on Google Search “very influential,” and 73% say the same for YouTube ads.10
To maximise your ads’ impact, create resonant messages. In particular, “real-world success stories of previous learners” is the top ad message that surveyed professionals say would most likely capture their attention.11
Running an immersive, resonant branding campaign on YouTube helped edtech platform upGrad successfully drive consideration among professionals.
It used Demand Gen with skippable and non-skippable video ads to showcase the theme of “Real People, Real Stories” in over 70,000 students’ testimonials about how upGrad courses enhance their careers.
This resulted in a 5.6X search lift and a 45% higher payment ratio for those exposed to both its branding and performance campaigns.
How edtech brands can tap the power of AI to win over learners
In addition to advertising on YouTube and Search, supercharge your marketing performance and edtech user experiences by using AI in these two ways:
1. Use AI-powered campaigns to maximise reach and conversions
Extend your reach into more of learners’ new, complex queries by using AI Max for Search campaigns, which intelligently adapt your ad content to match user intent in real time.
And to convert learners at scale wherever they are across all of Google’s channels, including Search, Display, and YouTube, tap Performance Max. The campaign type uses the full power of Google AI from end to end to improve your bidding, audiences, and creative to maximise performance.
When edtech organisation Emeritus wanted to increase awareness and valuable conversions among higher-education learners, it turned to Performance Max. The campaign used audience signals and search themes to reach the right high-intent audiences faster across Google channels, and drive incremental qualified leads.
The campaign scored an impressive 74% jump in qualified leads at 51% lower cost per qualified lead, while applications soared 76%.
2. Use AI-powered innovations to transform learning experiences
To fully meet customers’ upskilling needs, integrate AI into your edtech courses and platforms.
That’s what edtech company Great Learning is doing to drive a new phase of growth. It launched Glaide, a suite of AI-powered innovations such as “AI Mentor,” which acts as a personal learning coach. Its “AI Mock Interview” tool further supports learners by helping them prepare for jobs through customised interview practice and feedback.
Another case study is Emeritus, which is integrating AI into its platform to significantly enhance students’ learning experiences. For example, its educators are able to give students more impactful evaluations of their performance, by using Emeritus’ AI-assisted grading feature to get consistent, unbiased feedback.
Emeritus is also deploying an AI-powered tutoring tool across courses offered in partnership with top institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
With these case studies and latest insights about India’s professionals, you can update your playbook to better reach, engage and convert learners across their decision-making journeys on Search and YouTube. And by using AI-powered marketing and edtech innovations, your business will be well-positioned for profitable growth in 2026.
