AI is coming for your job, here’s the one move you need to make to stay employable and relevant in the job market
Hart, who previously served as a technical advisor to Jeff Bezos at Amazon and took over as president and CEO of Coursera in February 2025, told CNBC Make It that students must go beyond traditional degrees to survive in the rapidly changing employment landscape.
“The advice I give my sons is that one of the best things you can do is build on your college degree, especially with microcredentials,” he said, according to the CNBC website.
Microcredentials become indispensable as AI replaces roles
As companies begin to use AI to perform more tasks traditionally assigned to junior employees, microcredentials, short, targeted courses that certify specific skills, are gaining traction. These add-ons have become critical as companies increasingly reference artificial intelligence when laying off workers, Hart said.
Amazon cut 14,000 jobs this year as it doubles down on its AI development. Salesforce has eliminated 4,000 customer support roles, saying AI can handle about 40 percent of tasks performed at the company.
This trend is also clearly seen in employers’ perspectives. A CIPD survey of 2,019 senior HR leaders found that 62 per cent of UK employers expect assistant, clerical, manager and administrative roles to be the first to disappear due to AI. Competition for those remaining has intensified; The UK Student Employers Institute reported that 1.2 million applicants were competing for just 17,000 postgraduate positions.
“Them [micro credentials] Show employers that you not only earned the college degree you studied for, but also augmented it with something that is often more workforce-focused,” Coursera’s Hart added.
This is consistent with a broader shift in worker behavior. LinkedIn’s Emerging Skills report found that AI literacy has become the most frequently added skill to users’ profiles.
While credentials are important, Hart emphasized that personality still drives hiring decisions for young candidates.
“Let’s say you’re a young person currently in college, often in your first job you’ll be hired primarily based on what they see in you,” Hart explained. Graduates with minimal real-world experience are evaluated on mindset and potential rather than past achievements.
Employers are looking for candidates who are “proactive, hard-working and take initiative, and have demonstrated readiness to learn,” he said. Pursuing microcredentials demonstrates exactly these qualities.
Experts agree. Experts have previously told CNBC Make It that those laid off because of AI should prioritize short, targeted training, especially increasing AI literacy, rather than returning to school for another costly and time-consuming training. They said showing a commitment to ongoing learning shows employers that the same commitment will carry over to work.
