How to

Lead through
Generative AI
Transformation:
Insights from
Industry Experts
01 02 03 04 05

Table of Contents

Foreword: A letter from Coursera’s CEO 3

01
The role of leadership in generative AI transformation 4

02
Getting practical: How to navigate GenAI transformation 5
1. Think of GenAI as your thought partner 5
2. Assess ethical, data, and legal considerations 7
3. Champion key GenAI use cases 8
4. Manage the change for your organization 9

03
A look at Coursera’s GenAI transformation 11
1. Prioritizing areas of opportunity 11
2. Accelerating the development lifecycle 12
3. Improving how managers conduct annual reviews 13

04
Conclusion: Setting the bar for excellent GenAI leadership 14

05
Endnotes 15

How to Lead through Generative AI Transformation: Insights from Industry Experts 2

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Foreword:
A letter from Coursera’s CEO

On December 5, 2022, I received a Slack message from Coursera’s VP of Product

Management. It was a surprisingly precise recommendation outlining our approach
to integrating generative AI (GenAI) into Coursera. To my astonishment, he was able
to draft this blueprint within seconds by entering a few prompts into ChatGPT, which
led me to wonder how else large language models (LLMs) could be used as a thought
partner for innovation and productivity.

This was my GenAI awakening. I spent countless hours experimenting with ChatGPT. I
was astounded by the many possibilities it could offer Coursera as an organization—
and work as we know it.

Fast-forward to 2024 and the profound impact of GenAI is undeniable. Studies

show that the technology has the potential to transform tasks for nearly half the
workforce,1 especially for those in knowledge-based roles. McKinsey’s prediction
of $4.4 trillion in productivity gains due to GenAI highlights the scale of impact
technology can have on organizations.2

The challenge now lies with us, the leaders, to harness the potential for our
organizations. Yet, many business leaders lack the knowledge to do so. Despite the
fact that 89% of executives rank AI and GenAI as a top-three tech priority for 2024,
59% of leaders say that they have limited or no confidence in their executive team’s
proficiency in GenAI.3 Before we can transform our organizations with a GenAI
strategy, we first need to develop the talent and skills to work with GenAI ourselves

Earlier in January, just before Davos 2024, I launched Navigating Generative AI for
Leaders, a Coursera Specialization, to address this gap. This 4-course series, part of
Coursera’s Generative AI Academy, features several AI experts from institutions like
Salesforce, Stanford University, Orange Telecom, and Upwork. A couple of Harvard
business school professors took the course and decided to create an HBS case study
on our approach called “Coursera’s Foray into GenAI.”4

The guide you are reading encapsulates the essence of what we’ve learned at
Coursera, enriched with insights from other leaders who have been instrumental in
our AI journey. I hope it will inform your strategies to harness GenAI’s potential for
your organization with greater confidence.

GenAI has already changed the way that I do my job as a leader. I’m excited for you to
discover how it will change yours.

Jeff Maggioncalda
Chief Executive Officer, Coursera

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The role of leadership in

generative AI transformation

As the CEO of Upwork, the world’s largest freelance

marketplace, Hayden Brown has seen firsthand how
generative AI is transforming industries and jobs.
“AI was the fastest growing category of work in our
ecosystem this year,” says Brown, “and that shows
no signs of slowing down.”*
As Brown puts it, GenAI is a “now game.”

“This is not a time when executives can sit back, wait, and see how this plays out,”
she notes. “I really believe this is a time when everyone needs to be leaning forward,
leaning in, and figuring out how [GenAI] can impact their team and their business.”

However, many business leaders don’t know where to start. Research from Weber
Shandwick finds that 75% of leaders who see GenAI as a priority say that they lack
the tools to lead through GenAI transformation.5

In no time at all, GenAI will become an essential part of solving complex

organizational problems. To enable GenAI transformation across their organizations,
leaders must foster a work culture that cultivates growth, agility, and collaboration,
setting the stage for employees to adapt to GenAI. Sustained customer success,
shareholder value, and top-line growth are all on the line.

But in order to accomplish any of this, leaders must first obtain a strong grasp of
GenAI themselves.

So, where should you begin?

That’s what we’ll explore in this guide. From hands-on
experience to change management, we’ll cover the steps you
need to take to align with your executive team and serve as a
leader for GenAI transformation within your organization.

*Throughout this guide, quotes from leaders at Salesforce AI, DeepLearning.AI, Orange Telecom,
Stanford University, and Upwork are directly sourced from Coursera’s Navigating Generative AI for
Leaders Specialization.

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Getting practical:
How to navigate GenAI
transformation
Unlike more nuanced technological breakthroughs in the past, like cloud computing,
GenAI impacts everyone within an organization. “Just like we all had to learn how
to use Google Search and email 20 years ago, every employee today, in every
department, has to learn how to use AI to fundamentally redefine their job,” says
“Everyone in the company
Clara Shih, CEO of Salesforce AI. needs to become GenAI-
Successful GenAI transformation requires executives and business leaders to align
literate. A top-down mandate
on how they’ll integrate GenAI into every process across the business. If this doesn’t illuminates the GenAI
happen, your employees won’t connect GenAI to their roles, and you won’t be able to transformation and positions
harness the productivity gains of the technology.
the technology as a major
Here’s how business leaders can make meaningful investments in GenAI while still change driver for how
managing its risks.
we build products, serve
Step #1: Think of GenAI as your thought partner our customers, and
work internally.”
The first step in guiding your organization through GenAI transformation is
understanding how to use the technology yourself.

While GenAI can help you complete tasks more quickly—with one study finding
workers could complete some tasks 25% faster6 —it also has the ability to help you
think more effectively.
Mustafa Furniturewala
Consider the number of decisions you make every day. Wouldn’t it be great to Chief Technology Officer
have a thought partner examining the many angles of a situation from varying
stakeholder perspectives?

Large language models (LLMs) unlock new ways to solve critical problems and
provide the other business leaders around you with suggestions to strengthen your
customer relationships and ultimately move the business forward.

Here are three progressively more advanced prompting styles to

explore and master as a leader:
1. Basic query mode: These are your quick and general inquiries. You put a prompt
together, make a request from the LLM, and then it gives you a response.

2. Context-enhanced mode: This approach enhances the knowledge of an LLM by

providing additional context. There’s one word to remember here: “Consider.”
Before prompting the LLM, add context by saying, “Consider XYZ…” and then tell
the LLM what you need.

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3. Thought partner mode: Once you’ve mastered basic queries and context-
enhancing, you can take things one step further and use GenAI to support
complex problem-solving, brainstorming, and strategic thinking. The context
you provide the LLM should be your point of view or idea; you don’t start with
information from somebody else. Then, add in some relevant company context Course recommendations
and feed it all into the LLM. Now you’re asking your thought partner, the LLM, to
work on, improve, challenge, and iterate on your point of view.

Coursera Instructor Network

Sample Prompts for Using GenAI as a Thought Partner Use Generative AI as

Your Thought Partner
Basic query mode “Give me five effective ways to communicate the
rollout of new GenAI training with my organization.”

Context-enhanced mode “Consider that my remote organization is eagerly

adopting GenAI on its own, but we want to offer
some formal training for our employees around how
Vanderbilt University
to safely and ethically use GenAI at work. Give me
five effective ways to communicate the rollout of Generative AI
new GenAI training with my organization.” for Leaders
Thought partner mode “Consider that my remote organization is eagerly
adopting GenAI on its own, but we want to offer
some formal training for our employees around
how to safely and ethically use GenAI at work. I
think there’s more of an advantage to rolling out University of Michigan

training to the entire organization at once versus

department by department. What are the pitfalls of Generative AI Essentials:
an organization-wide rollout?” Overview and Impact

In the words of Andrew Ng, Co-founder and Chairman at Coursera and instructor for
one of Coursera’s fastest-growing GenAI courses: “The most important thing that a
CEO needs to do is understand this technology. And the only way to understand it is
to use it.”
LLMs offer alternate views, provide additional context, and help leaders examine
their biases. By considering its range of applications across disciplines, functions,
and roles, this critical forethought around GenAI can help leaders and individual
contributors alike strengthen their work and their decisions.

How to Lead through Generative AI Transformation: Insights from Industry Experts 6

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Step #2: Assess ethical, data, and

legal considerations
GenAI adoption moved quickly. Within ChatGPT’s first two months of launch, it
surpassed 100 million users.7 This growing interest in GenAI is reflected in enrollment Course recommendations
trends on the Coursera platform. In 2023, someone enrolled in GenAI content on
Coursera nearly every minute,8 and in 2024, this rate has quadrupled—four people
enroll in GenAI content every minute. The rapid adoption brings many concerns for Fractal Analytics
employees and business leaders alike:
Responsible AI in the
• Will GenAI replace my job?
Generative AI Era
• Is my data safe when I use GenAI?

• How do I use GenAI tools ethically?

• Will GenAI misuse intellectual property?

Fear of GenAI risks often unnecessarily halt leaders from making progress. Research IBM
from McKinsey has found that “generative AI is likely to have the biggest impact on
knowledge work, particularly activities involving decision making and collaboration, Generative AI: Impact,
which previously had the lowest potential for automation.”9 Without the proper Considerations, and
GenAI education, leaders may feel as though their jobs are at risk, along with their Ethical Issues
organizations’ proprietary knowledge.

With the right information, it quickly becomes clear that ethical, data, and legal
concerns are important to consider, but are also mitigable:

What do you need to know about GenAI ethics and risks?

Coursera Instructor Network
Business model risk: Understand the risk that GenAI misuse could pose to these four
entities: your business, competitors, suppliers, and customers.
Navigating Generative
Responsible use: Learn the limitations and guardrails around LLMs so employees AI Risks for Leaders
can ethically engage with them.

Data security and privacy: When used improperly, GenAI can expose vulnerable
data. Know that information can also be manipulated and augmented through
exploitation and phishing attacks.

Intellectual property risk: When machines can manipulate language, intellectual

property might be infused into answers. Be aware of how this can bring data
ownership into question.

“The CEO must have a distinct GenAI strategy that becomes part of the overall
company culture,” shares Trena Minudri, VP & Chief Learning Officer at Coursera.
“The executive team should consider, ‘How does this align with our culture and our
people? What is the most appropriate way to proceed?’”

A wait-and-see approach won’t work for GenAI; employees will start using GenAI on
their own regardless of company strategy or policy because they want to keep up
with skill trends and improve their job outputs. Business leaders need to grapple
with GenAI’s range of implications before rolling it out to their larger teams—but they
need to start now.

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Within your leadership team, CEOs and CLOs need to partner closely with the
developers and technology leaders who’ll actually bring GenAI initiatives into
existing tech stacks and workflows for large-scale projects—while also making sure
that all employees have access to low-code or no-code solutions that can drive
productivity gains. They also should connect with their chief data officer to mitigate
security risks. The overall GenAI strategy will inform broader L&D initiatives for
upskilling, as well.

This web of connections ensures that GenAI is embedded throughout the A data protection
organization and not solely an experiment.
to-do list
Step #3: Champion key GenAI use cases
Make data security and privacy
As Principal Content Development Manager - Data and AI at Microsoft, Graeme a priority.
Malcolm has followed trends in AI for many years and currently oversees the
development of skilling content programs. In Graeme’s words, one of the most Establish guardrails for which
important components for a GenAI program is context. “I think people don’t go to company data is shareable
work and say, ‘I’m going to do AI today,’” says Graeme. “They go to work to do their and reflect how to do so in
job, to do whatever it is that they were paid to do. And so I think part of the approach company guidelines. Use
to getting AI adopted—and to training people to make use of it—is to put it discretion when inputting data
into context.”10 into LLMs.

As a business leader, providing contextualized training is one of the key ways that Before adding data to a
you can empower employees to embrace GenAI following the establishing of a prompt, pause. Where does
baseline understanding of the technology. this data come from, and
how will it be used?
McKinsey identified five specific functional areas—including sales, marketing, Are there any intellectual
software engineering (both development and IT), customer operations, and product property implications?
R&D—that hold roughly 75% of the total annual impact of GenAI.11
Implement data usage
oversight by connecting
with your chief data officer
and chief information
security officer.

~75% of total annual impact of generative AI

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Sales: BCG anticipates that GenAI will lead to a doubling of productivity for sales
reps.12 LLMs can assist with many sales-oriented tasks—from quickly crafting tailored
messages for prospects and customers to updating the CRM with notes from their
latest calls. This frees up time for sellers to focus on higher-touch, white-glove
treatments for their accounts. Course recommendations

Marketing: Research from Gartner finds that marketing is the most mature use case
for AI augmentation, but remains nascent in market value and adoption.13 Marketers
can use GenAI to cut time and increase productivity through multi-channel content
London Business School
marketing and SEO.
New Ways of Working in
Customer success and operations: The fintech company Klarna has reported early
positive results from their rollout of an AI-powered support assistant.14 Beyond
an AI World
virtual assistant and chatbot use cases, GenAI has the potential to enable support
representatives to serve a greater variety of customers through GenAI-powered
multi-language support and rapid translation.

Software development: GenAI is already helping software developers write and

IBM
review code more efficiently. A joint 2023 study from Microsoft Research, GitHub, and
MIT found that software developers who use Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot can complete Generative AI: Business
their work 56% faster than those who don’t.15 Transformation and
Product R&D: Research and development teams are using GenAI to help rapidly Career Growth
iterate and test products. For instance, researchers at the biotech company Insilico
Medicine were able to halve the amount of time needed to bring a drug to market by
using a GenAI-powered platform.16

The diffusion of GenAI throughout different disciplines and functions within your
organization will surface new opportunities to learn and iterate. As Steve Jarrett, Coursera Instructor Network
Chief AI Officer at Orange, puts it: “Encourage your team, from your executives to the
working level, to work in concert with one another and to continually improve their Setting a Generative
operating procedures based on what they’re learning.” AI Strategy

Step #4: Manage the change for your organization

“The biggest changes that came with generative AI,” says Dr. Robert Brunner,
Associate Dean for Innovation and Chief Disruption Officer at the Gies College of
Business at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, “were simply the pace at
which change was happening and the scale of the impact of these changes.”

Business leaders will always pay close attention to key goals like increasing revenue
and boosting customer value. Moving forward, generative AI and the skills needed to
work with it will be key to achieving these goals.

As Trena Minudri, VP & Chief Learning Officer at Coursera, puts it: “How do we
boost productivity and improve the bottom line? Now, the key to doing all of that is
creating a culture and using GenAI in our companies. And that means equipping our
teams with both the mindset and the skill set they need to be successful.”

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Here are some ways to manage the GenAI organizational change

with finesse:
• Address GenAI early and often: Most GenAI change management and
communication should come from the CEO and other business leaders to Course recommendations
punctuate the technology’s importance. Similarly, business leaders should take
the lead in any company-wide discourse to show other leaders and functional
teams the potential GenAI brings to the broader organization. Amazon Web Services

• Assess the landscape: Keep up with industry discourse, emerging trends, Building a Generative
competitor use cases, and evolving capabilities, so you understand what’s
AI-Ready Organization
happening in the GenAI conversation.

• Stay ahead of change: Familiarize yourself with the roles that GenAI will affect.
Then, identify tasks that can be completed using GenAI, and work with business
leaders and middle managers to form learning initiatives tailored to these roles.

• Understand GenAI’s impact: GenAI isn’t shaping the future; it’s shaping Microsoft

the present. Leaders must understand how GenAI can and will impact their
Voice of Change:
organizations by seeking counsel from peers, the board, and employees. In the
words of Dr. Brunner: “Step out of your comfort zone, and talk to people that are
Communicate
different, that are new. Reach out to people in your company and understand with Teams for
what they’re seeing.” GenAI Adoption
To get more granular, be sure your learning initiatives are tailored to tangible skills
that map to functional roles. Start by looking at necessary GenAI skills for each
job, then provide training content to upskill those specific employees (we share an
example of how to do this in the next section).
Coursera Instructor Network
Mid-size to large organizations should even consider appointing a change
management leader to handle the entire process. This GenAI champion can support Empowering and
the executive team’s alignment and execution of their strategy. Transforming Your
“The change management or transformation role doesn’t exist in larger companies Organization with GenAI
yet,” notes Mustafa Furniturewala. “Consider facets of a chief AI officer role and
how they might facilitate training and development with L&D. This person can work
with the cross-functional executive team or functional leaders to ensure they’re
participating in educational design that’s relevant to various job functions.”

We had all of our CIO leadership team complete a GenAI course

as a way to lead by example. They were really showing the
organization that taking that one hour to invest in the training
was worth it.”

Alison Klein
Information Systems Talent Manager, Dow17

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A look at Coursera’s
GenAI transformation

GenAI’s promise of productivity and innovation

has captivated Coursera’s leadership team, Prioritizing areas
resulting in a variety of GenAI initiatives throughout of opportunity
the organization.
In the spirit of providing you with more concrete examples as you navigate your own Assess internal data
organizational transformation, we’d like to share our lessons and learnings.

Here is a brief overview of three GenAI exercises supported by Coursera’s

leadership team:
Bring in GenAI

GenAI Exercise 1: Prioritizing areas of opportunity

Our initial research was inspired by foundational learnings from the International
Labor Organization, which determined skills or outputs that could be enhanced by Architect a prompt

GenAI per job function.18

Here’s how we studied productivity’s impact and set GenAI benchmarks by team:
Review against
• Assess internal data: First, our team reviewed our workforce vision data to productivity benchmarks
understand the results, deliverables, and decisions that members of our team
perform. This provided a view of how individuals across product management,
engineering, research, finance, and HR teams were leveraging resources to
Map the opportunities
drive impact.

• Bring in GenAI: The team then reviewed research OpenAI, OpenResearch, and
the University of Pennsylvania to understand the intersection of skills, outputs,
and capabilities needed for each role. This paper notably includes a breakdown
of how different LLM modalities—such as text, hearing, and image generation—
can boost different skills for a forward-looking understanding of the potential
of GenAI.19

• Architect a prompt: The team entered a detailed prompt into an LLM to find the
intersection between job capabilities and the time needed to complete tasks. In
brief, the model was asked to determine which group a certain occupation would
fall within:

• GROUP 1: An LLM transforms more than 50% of daily activities for

these roles.

• GROUP 2: Opportunity is less than 50% for these roles.

• GROUP 3: All other roles not represented previously.

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• Review against productivity benchmarks: The team consolidated productivity

research around GenAI from industry leaders, banks, research organizations,
and consultancies. They next connected data points to every team and
job function.

• Map the opportunities: For the last step, the team aggregated company-
wide benchmarks in productivity, then applied them across every role in that
function. This helped map GenAI opportunities by team.

Outcomes: This study helped our leaders understand where to apply the most
focus for the most impact through GenAI. Engineering was one of the top areas.
We provided each engineer a pair programmer, an LLM designed to generate code.
Most engineers used these tools multiple times per day and recommended them
to their coworkers.

GenAI Exercise 2:
Accelerating the development lifecycle
Coursera recently completed a study with the support of an external consultant
where software engineers identified which tasks in their development lifecycle could
be improved or automated with GenAI. We sought to find out if the highest level of
impact was in the design, architect, build, test, or iterate phase.

This study was in part made possible because the engineering team already had at
their disposal GenAI tools like ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot that made it feasible to
incorporate GenAI into processes. “We can break down every single job role by tasks
that can potentially be improved with GenAI and we can look at the impact,” says
Mustafa Furniturewala, Coursera’s Chief Technology Officer. “But you also need to
have a tool that can make it possible.”

Outcomes: The study concluded that ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot were most useful
for seeding ideas and generating code within the build and test phases. Since then,
GenAI has decreased the time the average Coursera developer spends on repetitive
tasks in favor of high-value work.

We can break down every single job role by tasks that

can potentially be improved with GenAI and we can look
at the impact, but you also need to have a tool that can
make it possible.

Mustafa Furniturewala
Chief Technology Officer, Coursera

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GenAI Exercise 3:
Improving how managers conduct annual reviews
Coursera’s People Operations team hypothesized that ChatGPT could lead to
stronger 360 reviews and coaching feedback. The team also anticipated that some
managers would use Coursera’s secure LLM environment to streamline the
review process.

To get ahead of this, the HR team tested a variety of prompts and developed a
recommended process to help managers provide better tailored feedback to their
direct reports. This whole process was so successful that it’s already been embedded
Enroll in the course Setting a Generative
into training for annual review cycles in 2024.
AI Strategy for a more in-depth look at
this Coursera case study.
Steps that Coursera’s HR team took:
• Architect a range of prompts for managers to use in employee reviews and Enroll Now
incorporate these prompts into manager training resources.

• Input feedback from managers, peers, and self-assessments into ChatGPT,

utilizing Coursera’s safe and secure Playground environment.

• Ask specific questions that lead to coaching summaries centered around three to
five key points.

• Compare feedback to prior (non-AI-enhanced) reviews.

Outcomes: This process enabled managers to gain a wealth of data to strengthen

and reduce bias in employee reviews based on feedback from their coworkers and
self-reflection.

“The challenge with GenAI,” says Trena Minudri, VP & Chief Learning Officer, “is it’s
not a piece of your job, it’s how you do your entire job in a different way.”

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Conclusion:
Setting the bar for excellent
GenAI leadership
GenAI has shaken up how business leaders think
about the future of work and their role in leading
their organizations through the change.
In response, top leaders are leaning into the unknowns of AI and:
• Thinking of GenAI as a thought partner

• Assessing ethical, data, and legal considerations

• Championing key GenAI use cases

• Managing the change for their organizations

As you embark on your GenAI leadership journey, remember this: Adoption won’t
happen unless GenAI is a part of your overall business strategy and company
culture. The overall business strategy starts with you and your fellow leaders, so
take the initiative to experiment with GenAI yourselves and champion it within
your organization. With intention and dedication, you can guide your organization
through this necessary and exciting transformation.

Empower business leaders in your entire

organization to identify, develop, and execute
impactful GenAI business strategies with
Generative AI Academy.

Start here

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Endnotes

1. GPTs are GPTs: An Early Look at the Labor Market Impact Potential of Large
Language Models, OpenAI, OpenResearch, and University of Pennsylvania,
March 2023

2. The economic potential of generative AI, McKinsey, June 2023

3. From Potential to Profit with GenAI, BCG, January 2024

4. Coursera’s Foray into GenAI, Harvard Business School, March 2024

5. UN/PREDICTIONS 2024, Weber Shandwick, February 2024

6. Navigating the Jagged Technological Frontier: Field Experimental Evidence of the

Effects of AI on Knowledge Worker Productivity and Quality, Harvard Business
School, September 2023

7. ChatGPT sets record for fastest-growing user base, Reuters, February 2023

8. Coursera Data, January 2024

9. The economic potential of generative AI, McKinsey, June 2023

10. Bridging the Generative AI Talent Gap, Coursera, April 2024

11. The economic potential of generative AI, McKinsey, June 2023

12. Get Your B2B Sales Team Ready for the Power of Generative AI, BCG,
September 2023

13. Emerging Tech: Top Use Cases for Generative AI, Gartner, July 2023

14. Klarna AI assistant handles two-thirds of customer service chats in its first
month, Klarna, February 2024

15. The Impact of AI on Developer Productivity: Evidence from GitHub Copilot,

Microsoft Research, GitHub Inc., and MIT Sloan School of Management,
February 2023

16. Emerging Tech: Top Use Cases for Generative AI, Gartner, July 2023

17. Bridging the Generative AI Talent Gap, Coursera, April 2024

18. Generative AI and Jobs: A global analysis of potential effects on job quantity and
quality, International Labour Organization, August 2023

19. GPTs are GPTs: An Early Look at the Labor Market Impact Potential of Large
Language Models, OpenAI, OpenResearch, and University of Pennsylvania,
March 2023

How to Lead through Generative AI Transformation: Insights from Industry Experts 15