Coursera's Ollie borrows social media's playbook and even replaced its CTO's TikTok habit
Coursera CTO Mustafa Furniturewala says the AI-powered app borrows social media's engagement mechanics to build skills instead of encouraging endless scrolling.
- Jul 14, 2026,
- Updated Jul 14, 2026 2:42 PM IST
When Coursera began building its latest AI-powered learning app, the company did not start by asking how to improve its existing platform. Instead, its leadership team asked a different question: What would Coursera look like if it were built from scratch today?
That exercise led to Ollie, a standalone mobile app that borrows familiar engagement features from apps like TikTok, Instagram and Duolingo, including infinite scrolling, streaks, rewards and leaderboards. But instead of encouraging endless scrolling, it uses it to help people learn new skills.
"We were having a conversation in the leadership team around 'What if we built Coursera from the ground up? What would it look like in today's world?" Mustafa Furniturewala, Chief Technology Officer at Coursera, told Business Today in an interview.
Currently available to Coursera Plus subscribers, Ollie complements Coursera's traditional courses with 90-second lessons, AI-generated explainers, quizzes and a conversational AI assistant, making it easier for users to learn in short bursts throughout the day.
Replacing doomscrolling
Furniturewala said the company studied how consumer apps keep users engaged and explored whether those same techniques could be used to encourage learning.
"We heard stories from our learners that Ollie replaced some of their doomscrolling time. For me personally, it replaced some of my TikTok time," he said.
Unlike typical short-video platforms, every video in Ollie is paired with quizzes, AI conversations and follow-up lessons aimed at reinforcing concepts rather than encouraging passive consumption.
The app combines bite-sized clips drawn from Coursera's existing catalogue with AI-generated lessons on emerging topics. If users want to understand a news event or a new technology, Ollie can generate a lesson using an AI-powered content pipeline built on Coursera's teaching framework.
While features such as streaks, leaderboards and endless scrolling may resemble social media, Furniturewala said they serve a different purpose.
"The overall goal is you actually build a skills profile over time," he said.
Coursera's own research also shaped the app's design. According to Furniturewala, the company found that shorter lessons combined with active practice improve learning outcomes.
"What we've learned from user research and the data on our platform is that short-form video with practice leads to learning," he said. "If you have a really long video, you're likely going to lose attention."
The mobile-first design, he said, is a response to how learning habits have shifted, with users increasingly reaching for content in short pockets of free time rather than sitting through long lectures.
AI wrote the code...mostly
The AI-first approach behind Ollie extends well beyond the product experience. Furniturewala told Business Today that roughly 95% of the app's code was generated using AI tools. But he was quick to add that experienced engineers remained central to the process.
Without seasoned developers directing AI, he said, the outcome would simply be "AI slop" instead of production-quality software.
Coursera does not build its own large language model. Instead, it draws on multiple foundation models, including those from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google's Gemini, using different models for different tasks and fine-tuning them for teaching and learning use cases.
A homepage for every learner
Personalisation is another key part of Ollie. The app begins by asking new users about their interests, then adjusts what it recommends based on what they watch, what they skip and how they perform on quizzes.
"Every person's homepage should look different," Furniturewala said. "It's hyper-personalised."
Even the AI-generated lessons go through a human check, he said, combining automated content generation with expert oversight.
"We use agents with a combination of techniques like LLM as a judge with the expertise of a teaching and learning team to make sure the quality is great," Furniturewala said.
India is also emerging as an important market for the app. Furniturewala said Coursera is already seeing strong retention among Indian users and plans to deepen localisation over time, beyond features such as voice dubbing already available on its main platform.
For now, Ollie remains available only to Coursera Plus subscribers. Furniturewala said the immediate focus is to attract new subscribers and improve retention rather than generate a new revenue stream.
"Ollie is a first step towards innovating for Coursera and Udemy as a combined company," he said. "We have a lot more coming in terms of AI innovation, and in those places especially, we will consider different monetisation methods."
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When Coursera began building its latest AI-powered learning app, the company did not start by asking how to improve its existing platform. Instead, its leadership team asked a different question: What would Coursera look like if it were built from scratch today?
That exercise led to Ollie, a standalone mobile app that borrows familiar engagement features from apps like TikTok, Instagram and Duolingo, including infinite scrolling, streaks, rewards and leaderboards. But instead of encouraging endless scrolling, it uses it to help people learn new skills.
"We were having a conversation in the leadership team around 'What if we built Coursera from the ground up? What would it look like in today's world?" Mustafa Furniturewala, Chief Technology Officer at Coursera, told Business Today in an interview.
Currently available to Coursera Plus subscribers, Ollie complements Coursera's traditional courses with 90-second lessons, AI-generated explainers, quizzes and a conversational AI assistant, making it easier for users to learn in short bursts throughout the day.
Replacing doomscrolling
Furniturewala said the company studied how consumer apps keep users engaged and explored whether those same techniques could be used to encourage learning.
"We heard stories from our learners that Ollie replaced some of their doomscrolling time. For me personally, it replaced some of my TikTok time," he said.
Unlike typical short-video platforms, every video in Ollie is paired with quizzes, AI conversations and follow-up lessons aimed at reinforcing concepts rather than encouraging passive consumption.
The app combines bite-sized clips drawn from Coursera's existing catalogue with AI-generated lessons on emerging topics. If users want to understand a news event or a new technology, Ollie can generate a lesson using an AI-powered content pipeline built on Coursera's teaching framework.
While features such as streaks, leaderboards and endless scrolling may resemble social media, Furniturewala said they serve a different purpose.
"The overall goal is you actually build a skills profile over time," he said.
Coursera's own research also shaped the app's design. According to Furniturewala, the company found that shorter lessons combined with active practice improve learning outcomes.
"What we've learned from user research and the data on our platform is that short-form video with practice leads to learning," he said. "If you have a really long video, you're likely going to lose attention."
The mobile-first design, he said, is a response to how learning habits have shifted, with users increasingly reaching for content in short pockets of free time rather than sitting through long lectures.
AI wrote the code...mostly
The AI-first approach behind Ollie extends well beyond the product experience. Furniturewala told Business Today that roughly 95% of the app's code was generated using AI tools. But he was quick to add that experienced engineers remained central to the process.
Without seasoned developers directing AI, he said, the outcome would simply be "AI slop" instead of production-quality software.
Coursera does not build its own large language model. Instead, it draws on multiple foundation models, including those from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google's Gemini, using different models for different tasks and fine-tuning them for teaching and learning use cases.
A homepage for every learner
Personalisation is another key part of Ollie. The app begins by asking new users about their interests, then adjusts what it recommends based on what they watch, what they skip and how they perform on quizzes.
"Every person's homepage should look different," Furniturewala said. "It's hyper-personalised."
Even the AI-generated lessons go through a human check, he said, combining automated content generation with expert oversight.
"We use agents with a combination of techniques like LLM as a judge with the expertise of a teaching and learning team to make sure the quality is great," Furniturewala said.
India is also emerging as an important market for the app. Furniturewala said Coursera is already seeing strong retention among Indian users and plans to deepen localisation over time, beyond features such as voice dubbing already available on its main platform.
For now, Ollie remains available only to Coursera Plus subscribers. Furniturewala said the immediate focus is to attract new subscribers and improve retention rather than generate a new revenue stream.
"Ollie is a first step towards innovating for Coursera and Udemy as a combined company," he said. "We have a lot more coming in terms of AI innovation, and in those places especially, we will consider different monetisation methods."
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