CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 28, 2025--
According to a newly released report from higher education marketing and research firm Validated Insights, the market for training and education in artificial intelligence fields is substantial and growing, with outsized anticipated demand signaling even more significant near-term growth.
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According to the report, AI education and training is already growing rapidly:
“Based on the data, there was sizable existing interest and demand for professional and workplace education and training in AI and AI-related areas, but we probably haven’t seen anything yet,” said Brady Colby, Head of Market Research at Validated Insights. “According to survey data and hiring trends, this market, the AI education and training market, is positioned for incredible, maybe explosive, growth,” he said.
“As it stands, roughly 4% of the white-collar workforce is pursuing upskilling in the field of AI, while 80% indicate interest in doing so,” according to the report. To highlight demand further, the report cites that, “There are 46.9M workers indicating plans to upskill in AI within the next six months.”
For comparison, leadership training, which is one of the largest and fastest-growing career education markets, is predicted to grow at 10.2% annually, according to the new report. Meanwhile, AI education programs are projected to more than double that growth rate – estimated to grow at 22.7% per year.
“The expressed demand isn’t only driven by current workers wanting to upgrade or refine their skills on new technologies,” Colby said. “The job market is starting to seek and reward AI skills in hiring, and we’re already seeing dramatic projections of shortages in many AI-related career fields,” he said.
For example, the report found that:
Also noteworthy in the report is an alarm for degree-granting higher education institutions. “Only 0.2% of people learning AI in a supervised and structured environment are doing so via a credit-bearing program,” the report found.
“Given the expected very high demand for learning AI, that so few existing learners are in credit programs is an important thing to know,” said Colby. “It’s not necessarily a warning for colleges and universities as it may be a blast of opportunity. If for-credit, degree-granting institutions can sync their programs and reach this massive pool of interested students, the rewards could be excessive – for the students and schools alike,” he said.
Another interesting finding from the new report is that, although interest and demand for AI training is very high, workplace hiring for AI skills is uneven. According to the report, nearly half (46.7%) “of all job postings for AI experts came from California, New York, Texas, or Washington.”
The new report also covers degree competition trends in AI fields of study, states with the highest and lowest interest in acquiring AI training, trends in venture capital funding for AI-related companies, and existing business use of AI, among other data.
This report is the first from Validated Insights to examine AI education and training specifically. Previous reports have studied the market for online program management companies (OPM), MBA programs, nursing education, computer science programs, and trade schools.
Like its other benchmark education market reports, the report on AI education and AI-related fields will be updated regularly, along with other timely and relevant information about higher education and the higher education market generally. To receive future reports from Validated Insights, follow Higher Ed News by VI on LinkedIn.
About Validated Insights
Validated Insights is an agile marketing agency specializing in helping higher education institutions achieve and exceed their goals. With a comprehensive suite of services, including digital marketing, paid search, paid social, and web strategy, Validated Insights delivers data-driven strategies and measurable results. The agency's agile testing approach enables short- and long-term growth through better creative, strategy, media execution and continuous brand building. Validated Insights is the only agency in the higher education space to offer a performance guarantee in KPIs in the first 60 days - and continuous growth beyond that.
According to a Validated Insights report, the market for training and education in artificial intelligence fields is substantial and growing, with outsized anticipated demand signaling even more significant near-term growth. The report analyzes enrollment trends in higher education and training, student demand, and the labor market. Enrollment in AI programs at colleges and universities grew 45% annually from Fall 2018 to Fall 2023, however there was a shortage of 341,000 AI and machine learning workers in 2023. By 2027, that shortfall is projected to grow to nearly 700,000.
NEW YORK (AP) — It's only two weeks into the new year, and President Donald Trump has already claimed control of Venezuela, escalated threats to seize Greenland and flooded American streets with masked immigration agents.
And that's not even counting an unprecedented criminal investigation at the Federal Reserve, a cornerstone of the national economy that Trump wants to bend to his will.
Even for a president who thrives on chaos, Trump is generating a stunning level of turmoil as voters prepare to deliver their verdict on his leadership in the upcoming midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.
Each decision carries tremendous risks, from the possibility of an overseas quagmire to undermining the country's financial system, but Trump has barreled forward with a ferocity that has rattled even some of his Republican allies.
“The presidency has gone rogue,” said historian Joanne B. Freeman, a Yale University professor. She said it's something "we haven’t seen in this way before.”
Trump seems undeterred by the potential blowback. Although he doesn't always follow through, he seems intent on doubling and tripling down whenever possible.
“Right now I’m feeling pretty good," Trump said Tuesday in Detroit. His speech was ostensibly arranged to refocus attention on the economy, which the president claimed is surging despite lingering concerns about higher prices.
However, he couldn't resist lashing out at Jerome Powell, who leads the Federal Reserve and has resisted Trump's pressure to lower interest rates.
"That jerk will be gone soon,” Trump said.
Republican leaders have overwhelmingly rallied behind Trump throughout his turbulent second term. But new cracks began to appear this week immediately after Powell disclosed on Sunday that the Federal Reserve was facing a criminal investigation over his testimony about the central bank's building renovations.
Over the last year, the Justice Department has already pursued criminal charges against former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James and former national security adviser John Bolton, among other Trump adversaries.
But going after Powell, who helps set the nation's monetary policy, appeared to be a step too far for some conservatives. Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, a fierce Trump defender, was unusually critical.
“It just feels like most on Wall Street do not want to see this kind of fight,” she said during her Monday show. “The president has very good points, certainly. But Wall Street doesn’t want to see this kind of investigation.”
The Federal Reserve plays a key role in the economy by calibrating interest rates, which Trump insists should be lower. However, reducing the institution's independence could backfire and cause borrowing costs to increase instead.
At the same time, Trump has decided to expand the United States' role in complicated foreign entanglements — a seeming departure from the “America First” foreign policy that he promised on the campaign trail.
No move was more significant than the U.S. military operation earlier this month to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife from his country. In the months leading up to the attack, Trump frequently insisted he was targeting Maduro because of his role in the drug trade. He has quickly pivoted to portraying the move as an economic opportunity for the U.S.
Trump has said the U.S. will start controlling the sale of some Venezuelan oil, and he declared that the South American nation will be run from Washington. He even posted a meme declaring himself the “acting president of Venezuela.”
Trump has also threatened the leadership of Cuba and Iran, while insisting that the U.S. will control Greenland “ one way or the other ” — a position that has raised questions about U.S. relations with European allies. Greenland belongs to Denmark, a NATO member.
“NATO becomes far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the UNITED STATES,” Trump wrote on social media on Wednesday morning. “Anything less than that is unacceptable.”
Meanwhile, Trump's immigration crackdown continues to spark confrontations in American cities. Some have turned deadly, such as when a federal agent shot Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three in Minneapolis.
Administration officials have said the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer acted in self-defense, accusing Good of trying to hit him with her car. But that explanation has been widely disputed by local officials and others based on videos circulating online.
The incident came after Trump dispatched 2,000 immigration agents to Minnesota, responding to reports of fraud involving the state's Somali community.
On Tuesday, Trump said the administration was targeting “thousands of already convicted murderers, drug dealers and addicts, rapists, violent released and escaped prisoners, dangerous people from foreign mental institutions and insane asylums, and other deadly criminals too dangerous to even mention.”
The Trump administration's moves have created “chaos, confusion and uncertainty,” said Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, who leads the Democratic Mayors Association.
“There’s so much uncertainty across my city right now. The ICE raids in Minneapolis have really shocked the consciousness of many of my residents, and we’re trying to do everything we can to calm that concerns and quell those fears," Bibb said. “But people don’t feel like the world is getting better. People don’t feel like the economy is getting better.”
Voters across the nation will have their next chance to weigh in on Trump's leadership at the ballot box this November, when Republicans hope to retain control of Congress for the last two years of his presidency.
Democratic campaign officials in Washington are focused largely on the economy in their early political messaging. Most voters maintain a decidedly negative view on the issue, despite Trump's rosy assessment this week.
Just 37% of U.S. adults approved of how the president is handling the economy, according to a January poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. His economic approval, which was previously a strength, has been low throughout his second term.
“Donald Trump’s visit to Michigan puts a glaring, unflattering spotlight on how he and House Republicans have failed to address the affordability crisis," said Rep. Suzan DelBene, who leads the Democrats' House campaign arm.
But some activists are frustrated that their party's leadership isn't focusing more on Trump's unprecedented power grabs.
Ezra Levin, co-founder of the leading progressive protest group Indivisible, said he expects Trump's actions to get worse as his second and final term nears its conclusion.
“Folks at the end of last year who thought he would become a typical lame duck and limp toward a midterm loss have a framework for understanding this moment that is drastically outdated,” Levin said. “Authoritarians don’t willingly give up power. When weakened and cornered they lash out.”
Trump has repeatedly insisted he's only doing what voters elected him to do, and his allies in Washington remain overwhelmingly united behind him.
Republican National Committee spokesperson Kiersten Pels predicted that voters will reward the party this year.
“Voters elected President Trump to put American lives first — and that’s exactly what he’s doing," she said. "President Trump is making our country safer, and the American people will remember it in November.”
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
