Udemy, a global AI-powered skills acceleration platform, announced new research in collaboration with Indeed, the world’s #1 job site and a leading job matching and hiring platform. The report, titled “The Future-Proofing Instinct,” reveals a growing disconnect between workers and employers: while employees are proactively building skills for the future, many organizations remain focused on filling immediate job openings. Additionally, employees are heavily focused on developing technical capabilities, often overlooking the need to strengthen complementary soft skills that employers consistently identify as some of the most critical gaps in today’s workforce.
“Professionals are developing a remarkable instinct, accelerating their skills journeys faster than ever before to prepare for what’s ahead,” said Mr. Hugo Sarrazin, President and CEO at Udemy. “The future belongs to workers who can build AI fluency while maintaining adaptive or soft skills that help teams collaborate effectively and navigate the workforce transformation. At the same time, the smartest organizations will meet employees where they are, hiring the right skills to achieve business goals and secure top talent for sustainable growth.”
Analyzing job posting data from Indeed and employee upskilling patterns from Udemy Business across four major economies (Australia, India, UK, and the US) between September 2023 and September 2025, the research reveals critical insights that are reshaping how we understand workforce development. Specifically:
- Workers are upskilling for the future while employers hire for the present. While only 4% of job listings mention AI, it is driving two-thirds or 67.5% of employee upskilling efforts. Tech workers in particular are diving deep into AI, dedicating 95% of their upskilling efforts to AI, while only 17.5% of the fastest-growing skills in tech job postings are AI-related. The disconnect is even more striking in the manufacturing industry: 60% of employee learning focuses on AI skills, yet AI appears in zero of the sector’s top job posting skills across all four countries.
- Companies prioritize soft skills while learners focus on other capabilities. Skills like communication, critical thinking, and leadership appear across most high-growth skill lists on Indeed but they barely appear among Udemy’s fastest-growing learning topics. Employees are betting on emerging technical skills they can learn and master, yet soft skills are foundational to workplace performance and will only grow in importance in an AI-driven economy, making it imperative for workers to prioritize.
- Each industry is on its own timeline for AI adoption. Professional services employers actively hire for AI skills across all countries studied, while manufacturing workers are moving faster than their employers—devoting about 60% of learning to AI despite hiring remaining focused on traditional needs like quality control. The technology sector leads, with nearly all upskilling centered on AI and strong skills demand, especially in the US (30%) and UK (20%), though adoption varies by market.
- Employer skill demands are shifting fastest in Australia and US tech. AI skills grew in job postings from 3.2% to 22.3% in Australia (a 19 percentage point increase) and from 5.8% to 21.9% in the US over the two-year period.
“Indeed Hiring Lab’s job market data, along with Udemy’s workforce skills data, gives us a unique view of how work is evolving,” said Ms. Laura Ullrich, Director of Economic Research at Indeed. “AI emerging as a top-growing skill across industries isn’t surprising, but the employees who pair technical expertise with strong soft skills will be best positioned to thrive.” Analyzing datasets from Udemy and the Indeed Hiring Lab together offers a unique view of how work is changing: Indeed reflects what employers desire from workers hired today, while Udemy points to the skills workers are building for the future. Across both datasets, soft skills such as communication and leadership consistently rank among the fastest-growing skills across countries and industries and are becoming even more essential as AI tools play a larger role in everyday work.
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