Coursera, Inc. (NYSE:COUR) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Jeff Maggioncalda: Hey, Josh. Just one thing I want to add. On the degree side, at the end of the year, you can probably see by the mix here. We are finding that there are certain kinds of degrees that seem to appeal pretty well to, sort of working adults who are thinking about switching careers, not unlike the folks who are taking these career certificates, these professional certificates and career academy. And I would like to be able to say that we have figured out a certain design of degree that really seems to resonate with more distinctive and different from the general online degrees that are out there and that that is driving a very clear growth rate based on clearly meeting a need for these working owners for certain kinds of degrees that aren’t being met by the current standard and more traditional degree programs that are out there.

Operator: Thank you. We’ll go next now to Terry Tillman of Truist Securities.

Terry Tillman: Yes. Hey, good afternoon, gentlemen. Thanks for taking my questions. Hopefully, you all can hear me okay. Yes, I guess maybe Jeff, the first question for you is, maybe I’m just, kind of slow writing things down or typing things, but I think you said 18 certificates, kind of beginning of the year to 36, did I get them right or 38?

Jeff Maggioncalda: I think the 38 is the amount. Now, we’ve got to get these things rolled out, but we’ve had a pretty good track record of getting these things rolled So yes, among the ones that we’ve announced, we have more than doubled the 38.

Terry Tillman: Okay. Well, it feels like obligatory now for me on every call to ask about AI, and you talk about it. So, I’m curious out of these certificates, what’s the exposure to data science and AI amid the mix of your certificates now? And then the second question is, and whether at an Analyst Day you could talk about this, would love to get a sense on like the cohort analysis of each of these certificates and as they mature and how the revenue ramps from each of those and what have you learned to help, kind of improve the newer ones?

Jeff Maggioncalda: Yeah. So, on the question of impact of AI on these certificates, I kind of immediately go to two different things. One is, what is the impact on the jobs that these certificates train for. That’s a tougher one in my opinion. But clearly, you look at co-pilot that that Microsoft put out and some of the amazing things that can be done. I mean, not perfectly, but some pretty amazing things that could be done even with the GPT-3.5 in terms of writing code in different languages. It’s got to change those jobs. So, I think that I’m not sure exactly what the impact will be, but the bar will likely be raised in terms of what humans are expected to do because the tools are going to be able to do a lot more. In terms of the impact that AI will have on the actual content and the demands of the content, I mean, clearly, like if the jobs all dried up, people being less likely to take those certificates, but of course, they’re going to need some of their job.