GenAI Program: Instructor FAQs

To learn more about our GenAI program and upcoming GenAI tools, refer to this article.

Where can I access Udemy’s GenAI policy?

You can access Udemy’s GenAI policy by clicking on this link.

What happens if I opt out of the GenAI program?

Our goal is to ensure that when Udemy wins instructors win, and we believe participation in these AI features offers significant benefits. However, we understand that each instructor’s needs may differ, and we’re committed to providing you with this choice. As a part of opting out the following will happen:

• You won’t get the benefit of the additional exposure and learner engagement created by our AI tools. 
• You’ll lose access to our instructor-oriented GenAI tools, which are designed to optimize your course creation and management process.
• You may miss out on potential new revenue streams associated with these AI features.
• Your courses will continue to be included in core capabilities, such as search, recommendations, and captions on the platform.
• We will not use your content to develop or improve any GenAI models with the exception of core capabilities.

We offer this opt-out option annually, allowing you to reassess your participation each year as our AI tools evolve. The opt-out is only for the GenAI program. It does not affect your participation in Marketplace, Udemy Business, or in core capabilities as described above.

Will my content be used if I’m opted out of the GenAI program?

We will exclude opted-out content from our GenAI tools by December 31, 2025, and will notify you via email once our AI tools have been updated. During our pre-release testing phases, which run through the end of 2025, your content may be used as we refine these tools. However, we will ensure that it is excluded before any public launch of these AI features.

Of note, the GenAI program opt-out does not prevent your content from being used in features that use AI and are considered core capabilities of the Udemy platform. Specifically, core capabilities are functions needed to support the effective delivery of our services. These core capabilities fall into the following four categories:

1. Bringing participants to the platform (e.g., allocating marketing spend)
2. Matching participants with content (e.g., powering search and recommendations)
3. Facilitating safe transactions between participants (e.g., detecting fake course reviews)
4. Ensuring compliance and accessibility (e.g., providing learners with course transcripts)

Will Udemy use my content to train GenAI models?

We may explore training or fine-tuning GenAI models using instructor content in ways that are mutually beneficial to Udemy and instructors. We are committed to discontinuing usage of any GenAI models developed and improved using an instructor’s content if that instructor decides to opt out in the future. This is a significant technical commitment that we believe provides strong protections for instructors’ intellectual property.

How often can instructors change their opt-out status? Why can’t I change my opt out status at any point in time?

We offer instructors an annual period to opt out of the GenAI program. This allows you to reassess your participation each year as our AI tools evolve. Next year’s opt-out period will be communicated well in advance.

This is limited to an annual period because discontinuing usage of any GenAI model using an instructor’s content requires substantial effort to implement, especially when model regeneration is required.

What happens if I take no action?

If you do not opt out of the GenAI program during the designated annual period, you will be automatically included in the GenAI program.

If I am using a mobile device, can I review my GenAI Program participation status in the Instructor mobile app?

If you’re unpublished and using mobile,  to review your GenAI Program participation  status you must review your account settings via web browser on either desktop or mobile.

If you’re published, then you can review your participation status in the Instructor mobile app.

How will instructors be compensated for the use of their content in GenAI tools? Can you provide more details on the potential new revenue streams?

As we implement new GenAI offerings, we’re committed to ensuring instructors participating in the GenAI program benefit from the additional value their content brings to these tools. We expect our new AI features to drive learner engagement, increase customer retention, and ultimately, grow revenue for both Udemy and instructors. We are committed to rewarding instructors when their content is utilized by our AI features.

If new AI revenue streams are created, these will be added to the Udemy Business revenue and flow to the instructor revenue pools.

For co-instructor courses, how will the opt-out process work?

For courses with multiple instructors, the course owner’s decision to participate in the GenAI program will determine the participation status for the entire course. Co-instructors’ individual preferences won’t affect the course’s overall status in the GenAI program. We recommend that all instructors involved in a co-instructor course discuss their GenAI program participation preferences before the course owner makes the decision.

How do these GenAI capabilities impact Udemy’s reliance on an instructor-creator model?

Udemy’s GenAI capabilities are designed to enhance and support our instructor-creator model, not replace it. We remain firmly committed to our instructor-led approach to learning. 

We have no plans or intentions of using GenAI with instructor content to create courses that compete with instructor courses. Our AI tools are designed to complement and amplify instructor expertise, not substitute for it.

What happens if an instructor joins Udemy after the annual period? When can they make their choice?

If you join Udemy outside of the annual period, you can make your decision to participate in the GenAI program at any time before publishing your first course. During the course publication process, you’ll have an opportunity to opt out. . If you do not opt out during the publication of your first course, then you will be automatically included in the GenAI program. The next time you can update your status will be during the annual period, tentatively August 2025. 

This approach ensures that new instructors have control over how their content is used in the GenAI program from the very beginning, regardless of when they join Udemy. After publishing your first course, you’ll follow the standard annual opt-out schedule like other instructors.

How can instructors optimize their courses for GenAI tools?

• Participate in the GenAI program to ensure your content is included in our AI-powered features.
• Keep content fresh and relevant (AI Assistant)
• Ensuring metadata on content is informative, comprehensive, updated, and accurate (e.g. lecture titles, section titles, descriptions, etc.)
• Having content that covers in-demand skills or new popular technologies
• Design your course sections to be modular (i.e., can be consumed standalone, has few dependencies on other content, not too long). This helps ensure that the learner experience is coherent when one of the sections of your content is included in an AI-generated learning path.
  

How can I ensure these new tools are high-quality and won’t affect my ratings?

We’re committed to launching tools on Udemy that improve the overall experience for instructors, learners, and organizations. We have worked with a few instructors to evaluate the AI Assistant response quality. And we will also run pre-release experiments for both the AI Assistant and AI-powered learning paths to learn how engagement and time-spent learning are impacted. Udemy will be analyzing how users rate and interact with the output of these features over time to improve the experience.

Are there any studies on how GenAI will affect minutes watched?

We’re committed to launching tools on Udemy that improve the overall experience for instructors, learners, and organizations. As such, we will run pre-release experiments for both the AI Assistant and AI-powered learning paths to learn how engagement and time-spent learning are impacted and we will continue to track their impact over time.

Will instructors have access to data on how often their content is used/referenced by AI tools?

Not immediately, but we’re working on it. We’re committed to providing instructors with helpful insights  and expect to roll out this feature in 2025. Our team is actively developing the best way to deliver this data to you, based on learner behavior and Udemy Business administrator usage patterns. We’ll keep you updated on our progress.

Will  instructors who choose not to participate in the GenAI program be disadvantaged?

Udemy’s approach is grounded in providing instructors with options and choices because we believe that no two instructors are the same, nor are their needs – we respect your individual decisions and choices to participate in Udemy’s features. 

There will, however, be advantages to participating in the GenAI program. As customers increase their usage of our GenAI solutions, we expect participating instructors to reap the benefits of this additional consumption. 

However, we will continue to surface courses of opted-out instructors through our core capabilities such as search and recommendations so non-participating instructors can still grow their success on Udemy. Undoubtedly,  we expect GenAI to drive more attention to courses included in the GenAI program.

AI Assistant

How will my content be used in the AI Assistant?

The AI Assistant will choose courses to show learners  based on various factors, including what learners state as their skill need, keywords, semantic similarity of course content, ratings, etc. The AI assistant is designed to complement your course and direct the learner back into the course content where possible.

How will the AI Assistant determine which course to recommend when there are multiple similar courses on a topic?

Udemy’s search and recommendations have always connected learners to the courses we believe are the best match for their search.  Now, with GenAI, we are able to refine the learner’s needs to a much more detailed degree and also better understand the course coverage to improve our ability to match content to learner needs.

AI Assistant enables learners to refine their queries to a much greater extent  (including what learners state as their skill need, keywords, semantic similarity of course content, ratings, etc.), and therefore allows us to be much more specific in the recommendations we make. We have internal teams dedicated to monitoring the impact of the changes we make to our discovery systems and continuously optimizing them to ensure the best balance of result relevance and variety.

What are the metrics that GenAI is using in order to make course suggestions? Is there a risk that new courses would never make it to the selection for the skills tree as the AI Assistant is more likely to show only 2/ 3 top selling courses?

The AI Assistant chooses which course to show based on various factors, including what learners state as their skill need, keywords, semantic similarity of course content, ratings, etc. AI Assistant is using similar signals as traditional search to rank courses for users, so we do not believe AI Assistant will rank new courses lower than traditional search does. Our success metrics are based on a user’s engagement, which will help us understand if we are recommending the best content for a learners need.

Is the AI Assistant  only for the UB courses, or will it suggest courses outside UB as well?

The AI Assistant will be available in all English language Udemy Business courses of instructors included in our GenAI program.

When will the AI Assistant’s “summarize course/lecture” feature show up? How will it impact course watch time and instructor revenue?

Summarization of a course or a lecture will only show up if a learner  asks for a summary during  content discovery. For in-course, there will be a prompt that learners  can click to summarize the lecture or course. These summaries are intended to be brief and act like the Course Landing Page to drive learners to consume more lectures, rather than to replace the lecture.

AI-powered learning paths

How will my content be used in AI-powered learning paths?

Your content will help define key skill domains needed for learning paths requested by Udemy Business administrators. Sections or lectures from your course may be added to relevant learning paths, increasing your course’s discoverability within Udemy Business.

Will the AI-powered learning paths include full courses or specific lectures from various courses?

The AI-powered learning paths will include specific lectures and sections from various courses, rather than just full courses. This approach allows for more targeted learning experiences that precisely match organizational skill needs. To increase the chances of your content being selected, design your course sections and lectures to be self-contained, clearly titled, and concise where possible.

Today, organizational customers are already creating learning paths for their employees, so AI-powered learning paths won’t change their behavior. Instead, AI-powered learning paths make it easier for admins to find the content most relevant and to create optimal paths for employees, which we expect to drive more course content consumption. Nonetheless, it is also worth noting that a significant amount of organizational consumption remains full course consumption.

How will my content be chosen in AI-powered learning paths?

Our AI-powered learning paths include relevant content from instructors and courses both included in Udemy Business and the GenAI Program. This involves matching your course content and transcripts with the specific skill domains and learning objectives defined by Udemy Business administrators.

Don’t see what you’re looking for? Ask in the community, and we’ll continuously update this FAQ article to address your questions.