Agentic workflow enrollments grew 187% and AI security 148%, alongside increases of 82% in complex problem-solving and 46% in critical thinking
Doha, Qatar, 05 October 2026: Qatar ranks fifth in the Middle East and North Africa and 46th globally on the new AI-Human Skills Synergy Index featured in Coursera’s Global Skills Report 2026. The Index, the first of its kind, measures the extent to which learners across 98 countries are developing AI skills alongside the human skills needed to apply them, while accounting for each country’s broader AI readiness.
Qatar’s position comes as the country advances its National AI Strategy, which connects talent development with AI deployment. A US$20 billion partnership between Brookfield and Qai, Qatar’s national AI company, will invest in AI infrastructure and includes skills development. The ALIF program, delivered through Qatar Digital Academy in collaboration with Scale AI, provides government employees with practical training to apply generative AI effectively and responsibly. A national upskilling initiative with Google Cloud also aims to provide more than 50,000 learning opportunities by 2030.
Now in its eighth edition, the Global Skills Report 2026 draws on a subset of learning data from more than 300 million learners across Coursera and Udemy. The report combines insights into AI and human skills development with broader national readiness data from Oxford Insights’ Government AI Readiness Index.
Across Qatar, enrollments in AI courses increased 70% year over year. Trending AI learning themes include generative AI, agentic AI and AI agents, and large language model application and modeling. Other prominent themes include AI and machine learning foundations and model- and assistant-specific skills. Enrollments in agentic workflows grew 187%, AI security increased 148%, and generative AI rose 132%.
Learners in Qatar are also developing the human skills needed to evaluate AI outputs and guide their use at work. Communication and presentation, adaptability and resilience, and people leadership and management are among the trending human skills themes, together with planning and prioritization and ethics and governance. Enrollments in complex problem-solving increased 82% year over year, while critical thinking grew 46% and innovation rose 34%.
The report examines which AI and human skills learners develop together more distinctively than the global average. In Qatar, learners pair adaptability and resilience with both generative AI and prompting and AI interaction. They also pair AI product strategy and personalization with emotional intelligence and empathy. These combinations can help people adjust workflows and decisions as AI tools and requirements change, while considering human needs, context, and the consequences of AI use.
As individuals build new skills, micro-credentials offer a way to demonstrate specific capabilities verified through assessment, giving employers evidence of what they know and can do. According to Coursera’s Micro-Credentials Impact Report 2026, 92% of employers surveyed globally said entry-level hires with micro-credentials perform better in their first year than those without them. The Global Skills Report shows that micro-credential enrollments in Qatar rose 48% year over year overall, with AI-related micro-credential enrollments increasing 82%.
Kais Zribi, Coursera’s General Manager for the Middle East and Africa, said: “As Qatar advances its AI readiness, realizing the full value of AI will depend on equipping the workforce with both technical capabilities and essential human skills. Growth in learning across both areas provides a foundation to build on, and the next opportunity is to extend that learning to more people. Employers and educators can support this through learning pathways aligned with workplace needs, giving people opportunities to apply their knowledge in practical settings. Broadening access to this kind of learning will help Qatar translate its AI investments into gains in productivity and career opportunities in support of Qatar National Vision 2030.”