Insights
Back-to-School 2026: The Most In-Demand Skills for the AI Era, According to 2U’s Learner Data
An analysis of search behavior from millions of learners on 2U’s global learning platform, edX, points to a clear shift: from AI literacy to AI application, human-centered skills, and business expertise.
For the past two years, AI literacy has dominated conversations about the future of work and learning. Now, learner behavior suggests the conversation is expanding.
According to 2U’s learner data, AI remains the most-searched topic across the platform, but learners are increasingly looking beyond basic understanding. They are searching for ways to apply AI to specific roles, workflows, and career paths, while continuing to invest in business, technical, and human-centered skills.
An analysis of search behavior across 2U’s platform between July 2025 and July 2026 offers insight into what learners are prioritizing as they navigate a rapidly changing workforce. The picture that emerges is one of AI becoming part of a broader learning baseline and reinforcing the need for a wider mix of capabilities.
This shift mirrors broader workforce trends: The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025 found that core skills like analytical thinking, resilience, and leadership, alongside technical skills like AI and big data, networks and cybersecurity, and technology literacy, are among the fastest-growing skills employers will seek globally over the 2025-2030 period.
Another Work Economic Forum report found that more than one in three young workers globally are employed in occupations with medium to high exposure to AI-driven task change. The findings underscore the importance of closer coordination among employers, educators, and policymakers to address an increasingly important question: What do people need to learn when AI is no longer a specialized skill, but part of how work gets done?
Our learner search data points to five trends heading into the 2026 back-to-school season.
1. The most in-demand skills reveal a new learning baseline
1. The most in-demand skills reveal a new learning baseline
The most-searched skills in 2026 reflect a blend of AI literacy, technical fluency, business expertise, and human-centered disciplines.
The Top 10 most-searched topics between July 2025 and July 2026 were:
- AI
- Python
- Finance
- Project Management (+7 positions YoY)
- Data Science (-2 positions YoY)
- Excel (-2 positions YoY)
- Data Analysis (+5 positions YoY)
- Psychology
- Supply Chain (+9 positions YoY)
- English
Together, these 10 topics generated approximately 1 million search sessions during July 2026 alone.
What this means
AI remains at the top of the list, but the top 10 reveals learner demand is evolving through expansion rather than disruption. Learners continue to seek technical skills like Python and data science, business capabilities like finance, supply chain, and project management, and disciplines like psychology and English.
2. Learners are moving from AI awareness to AI application
2. Learners are moving from AI awareness to AI application
Looking at changes in AI-related search rankings between January 2025 and July 2026, “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence” still ranks high within AI searches. Yet, some of the fastest-growing topics point toward practical application, workplace workflows, and career pathways:
- Introduction to Artificial Intelligence: #27 to #7 (+20 positions)
- AI Engineer: #48 to #18 (+30 positions)
- Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG): #36 to #20 (+16 positions)
- AI Agent: #23 to #12 (+11 positions)
- AI Automation: #47 to #16 (+31 positions)
Together, these searches point to growing interest in how AI is deployed, governed, and operationalized across organizations.
What this means
AI queries are becoming more specific. Foundational knowledge still matters, but searches increasingly point toward learning how to build with AI, incorporate it into and automate workflows, and develop the skills required for emerging AI-related roles. As organizations move from AI experimentation to deployment, learning needs will become more role-specific and more deeply embedded in ways of working.
3. The AI ecosystem is maturing beyond ChatGPT
3. The AI ecosystem is maturing beyond ChatGPT
Learners’ interests have now broadened beyond a single AI tool. In 2023 and 2024, ChatGPT dominated public attention and learner curiosity. Between July 2025 and July 2026, learner interest broadened beyond a single AI tool, reflecting a more sophisticated AI landscape. New searches focused on agents, copilots, automation, and workflow-oriented AI tools:
- Claude entered the top five AI-related searches YoY.
- Agentic AI entered the top five AI-related searches YoY.
- ChatGPT dropped from #4 to #13 YoY, marking a significant decline.
What this means
The market is maturing. Learners are moving beyond a single-tool understanding of AI. Instead of focusing on one platform, they are exploring a broader ecosystem of AI technologies and applications. This mirrors the evolution of the workplace itself as AI becomes embedded across more tools, functions, and workflows.
4. Business skills remain essential in the age of AI
4. Business skills remain essential in the age of AI
Business-oriented learning demonstrated resilience, maintaining high rankings or gaining ground from July 2025 to July 2026:
- Finance maintained a top-three position overall.
- Project Management climbed from #11 to #4 (+7 positions YoY), making it one of the fastest-rising high-volume topics on the platform.
- Supply Chain rose from #18 to #9.
- Marketing moved from #9 to #12, while Business moved from #14 to #16.
- Business-focused searches consistently outperformed most individual AI specializations in total volume.
What this means
Learners do not view AI skills as a replacement for business expertise. Year-over-year search behavior suggests they are combining AI literacy with operational, financial, and leadership capabilities. The emerging workforce advantage increasingly comes from knowing how to use AI to enhance domain expertise.
5. Human-centered skills hold their value
5. Human-centered skills hold their value
As AI automates technical tasks, learners continue to search for disciplines rooted in human behavior and decision-making.
- Psychology (#8), English (#10), and Law (#11) continue to rank highly alongside technical and business skills.
- Leadership also demonstrated sustained learner interest, rising from #23 to #15 year over year and remaining among the most-searched professional skills.
What this means
As organizations implement AI at greater scale, uniquely human capabilities – judgment, communication, leadership, and change management – become more valuable. Broader workforce research has identified analytical thinking, resilience, and leadership among the skills employers expect to remain important as technological change accelerates. For educators, that reinforces an important point: preparing learners for an AI-enabled workforce shouldn’t mean narrowing education to AI alone.
What this means for the next era of learning
What this means for the next era of learning
The evolution of learner demand suggests that AI has entered a new phase. Interest in foundational AI knowledge remains strong, but learners are moving from awareness toward practical application, exploring a broader ecosystem of AI technologies, and continuing to seek business, technical, and human-centered knowledge alongside them.
While search behavior alone can’t tell us exactly how the workforce will evolve, it does give us a real-time view into the questions learners are asking, and the capabilities they believe are worth building. For universities and employers, that’s an important signal. The skills landscape is rapidly changing, and learners are changing with it. Meeting them where they are headed will require learning opportunities that connect emerging technologies to the disciplines, roles, and human capabilities that give those technologies value.
For learners preparing for the future of work, the emerging formula is becoming clear: build AI fluency, develop domain expertise, and strengthen the human skills that technology cannot replace. Based on our search data, learners understand this.
It’s the season to start learning something new. For a limited time, save 15% on select courses and programs available on edX.org with the code ACTION2026.
Methodology
Methodology
This analysis is based on learner search activity from approximately 1.8 million users across 2U’s global learning platform, edX, between January 2025 and July 2026, constituting around 10% of total site users. Findings reflect search behavior and learner intent rather than enrollments, completions, or workforce outcomes. Unless otherwise noted, topic rankings and year-over-year comparisons reflect changes between July 2025 and July 2026, while longer-term trend analyses examine changes in learner search behavior between January 2025 and July 2026. Search activity provides a unique view into emerging learning priorities and the topics learners actively seek as they prepare for the future of work. Data includes overall search traffic, keyword rankings, AI keyword rankings, and year-over-year search trends across the platform.
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