Bengaluru, May 2026.

 Great Learning, a leading global ed-tech company for higher education and professional training, revealed that professionals from non-technical educational backgrounds accounted for 66% of enrolments in its AI programs in FY26. The findings reflect a growing shift in India’s upskilling landscape, where professionals across functions are adopting no-code AI tools to enhance productivity and operational efficiency to stay relevant in an AI-driven workplace.

This demand is largely driven by experienced professionals with over 12 years of work experience, accounting for nearly 64% of enrolments from non-technical educational backgrounds. These include senior leaders, functional and business unit heads across sectors such as BFSI, healthcare &pharma, manufacturing, education & research, FMCG and retail. These experienced professionals are increasingly turning to AI to understand how it can be applied within their existing functions. Across marketing, HR, finance, operations, product, and sales, they are exploring how AI-powered automations can streamline workflows, reduce operational overheads, accelerate decision-making, and improve business outcomes. As AI becomes more deeply integrated into business operations, the ability to scale AI initiatives beyond experimentation is emerging as a critical leadership capability.

The trend also reflects a broader shift underway across Indian workplaces. According to Microsoft’s Work Trend Index 2026, 65% of AI users feel pressure to use AI at work to remain competitive, highlighting how AI fluency is becoming a core professional expectation across roles, functions, and industries.

As AI continues to evolve at a rapid pace, professionals are increasingly rethinking how they upskill. Traditional seven-to-nine-month certificate programs in AI are witnessing declining preference as learners seek pathways that keep pace with rapid advancements in areas such as Generative AI, Agentic AI  and can help them in accelerating faster  AI adoption in their organisations. This shift in consumer behaviour is driving strong demand for shorter, application-oriented programmes that enable professionals to gain immediately deployable skills without stepping away from work for extended periods. Reflecting this emerging trend, most newly launched AI programmes by Great Learning are now designed within a three-to-five-month duration, combining hands-on learning with industry-relevant applications to help professionals stay continuously aligned with the evolving AI landscape.

The company has also introduced no-code learning tracks across most of its portfolio, including Data Science, Machine Learning, Generative AI, and Agentic AI programs. Learners can now choose between a coding track and a no-code track within the same program, making AI learning significantly more accessible for professionals from non-technical backgrounds. These programs continue to maintain a strong hands-on approach, with nearly 70% of the learning focused on projects, real-world implementation, case studies, and live demonstrations by industry experts.

Commenting on the trend of emerging AI enrolments among non-tech professionals, Arjun Nair said:

“AI is no longer a specialised capability limited to technology teams. What we are witnessing now is a much broader workplace shift where professionals across sectors are learning how to apply AI within their existing roles to improve efficiency, decision-making, and business outcomes. The rise of no-code AI tools is making this transition significantly more accessible for non-technical professionals.

What is particularly interesting is that a large proportion of these learners are experienced professionals and business leaders who are approaching AI not as a theoretical concept, but as a practical business capability. Through our collaborations with leading Indian and global institutions, we are focused on making high-quality, industry-relevant AI learning more accessible for professionals across backgrounds. As AI adoption scales across industries, organisations will increasingly require functional leaders who understand how to integrate AI into everyday operations, regardless of whether they come from a technical background or not.”

Great Learning continues to strengthen its portfolio of AI and technology programs developed in collaboration with the world’s foremost academic institutions such as IIT Bombay, SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, Johns Hopkins University, Duke University, The University of Texas at Austin, MIT Professional Education, and more. These programs help deliver industry-relevant curriculum, hands-on learning, real-world AI applications, and exposure to emerging technologies for professionals across technical and non-technical backgrounds. Some of the popular programs include:

●       Certificate in Agentic AI by IIT Bombay

●       Applied AI and Data Science Program by MIT Professional Education

●       No-Code Generative AI and Agentic AI by Johns Hopkins University

●       Post Graduate Program in AI Agents for Business Applications by the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin

●       Applied Generative AI and Agentic AI by Johns Hopkins University

●       No Code and Agentic AI by MIT Professional Education

●       Certificate Program in Agentic AI by Johns Hopkins University