AI is no longer a niche skill — it’s a strategic priority. This is especially true for key use cases and industries. In fact, 45% of C-Suite leaders say AI and machine learning skills are their top areas to upskill in 2025, according to Skillsoft’s C-Suite Perspectives Report.
Companies know it’s no longer just about understanding what AI can do — it’s about actively using AI to meet business goals while fostering innovation and efficiency.
But, while leaders recognize AI’s potential, many are still struggling to close the gap between ambition and capability.
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So, how can individuals and teams build the skills required to actually move the needle? We analyzed the most in-demand AI use cases to show where AI is already delivering impact — and how you can upskill to lead the way.
Insider Tip: For teams looking to build AI and other in-demand tech skills, Codecademy Teams makes it easy to upskill together.
So, without further ado, let’s take a look at the six most popular AI use cases transforming industries today.
1. AI for Customer Service
One of the most rapidly evolving AI use cases is within customer service. When you’re chatting with a support rep, or rebooking a flight, AI is working behind the scenes.
Using natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning, virtual assistants like ChatGPT are revolutionizing how companies handle inquiries, resolve issues, and process transactions. For professionals in customer experience, understanding how to integrate and train these tools is becoming a critical skill set.
AI skills you can learn
- Intro to ChatGPT. Harness the capabilities of ChatGPT, one of the most talked-about AI tools. Whether automating emails or generating content, this free course teaches how you can enhance customer service and streamline workflows with AI-powered conversation models.
- Apply Natural Language Processing with Python. NLP is the reason why ChatGPT can understand our written requests, or autocorrect can predict what we might type next. In this skill path, learn all about how computers work with human language and complete a portfolio-ready project.
- Customer Service: Engaging with Customers. While not specifically about AI, this course covers techniques to improve customer engagement, boost self-confidence, and excel in problem-solving. All essential skills when working in customer support.
2. AI for Healthcare
Imagine a world where diagnoses are quicker, treatments are more personalized, and patient outcomes dramatically improve. That’s exactly what AI is enabling in the healthcare industry.
With AI’s ability to analyze massive datasets, healthcare professionals can make more informed decisions, ultimately improving patient outcomes. By developing skills in AI for healthcare, you’ll be contributing to innovations that could save lives, reduce costs, and revolutionize patient care.
AI skills you can learn
- Intro to Generative AI. This course is the perfect launchpad into the world of AI. Explore different types of AI models and discover how this technology is being leveraged to automate and innovate across industries.
- Build a Machine Learning Model. Another starting point for AI in healthcare is this machine learning course designed for beginners. Machine learning models can be trained to analyze medical imaging (like CT scans) to identify anomalies, or assist in diagnosis.
- Machine Learning/AI Engineer Career Path. This comprehensive path covers building end-to-end machine learning applications. These can then be applied to various healthcare solutions, from predictive analytics to personalized medicine.
3. AI for Finance
AI isn’t just influencing investment strategies — it’s transforming the backbone of financial services. On an individual level, financial analysts are using AI to evaluate their clients’ financial history and behaviors. This makes it easier to provide personalized plans, recommendations, and investment strategies.
At a macro level, many financial institutions are using AI systems to analyze countless transactions and flag fraudulent activity.
Whether you’re interested in developing fraud detection systems or optimizing trading algorithms, AI in finance offers endless opportunities for career growth. Particularly as digital payments and autonomous banking continue to rise.
AI skills you can learn
- Principles of Data Literacy. Master the fundamentals of data literacy—learn how to interpret, visualize, and analyze data effectively. This recently updated course features interactive components and uses AI for data, giving you hands-on learning by building real-world data skills.
- Analyze Financial Data with Python. The best analysts at banks and hedge funds rely on more than Excel to efficiently process data and produce recommendations. In this Skill Path, you will learn to process, analyze, and visualize financial data with Python.
- Recognizing Hallucinations, Inaccuracies, and Bias in AI. Understanding the challenges of AI-generated content, such as inaccuracies and biases, is crucial in finance. This helps ensure ethical and accurate AI applications, especially when considering areas like lending, credit scoring, and insurance.
4. AI for Marketing
AI in marketing is rapidly becoming one of the most compelling use cases for those looking to build AI skills. In fact, over 80% of marketers are already using AI in some capacity, according to HubSpot.
From targeted advertising and recommendation systems to customer sentiment analysis and content creation, AI is reshaping the marketing landscape by enabling more efficient and effective strategies.
The growing demand for AI in marketing means there are abundant opportunities to understand customers on a deeper level and tailor messages like never before. Here are a few tips we put together on how to use ChatGPT to form a marketing plan.
AI skills you can learn
- Intro to MidJourney. You can also use AI to create media assets like pictures and videos to accompany your marketing materials. This course introduces you to MidJourney, which is one of the most popular AI tools for image generation, helping you tap into your creative side.
- Prompt Engineering for Marketing. Learn how to use ChatGPT for marketing by using prompt engineering to generate marketing copy and content that engages your audience.
- Learn How to Use AI for Marketing. This beginner-level course breaks down how to use generative AI for marketing. You’ll learn how to use tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney for research, strategy, and content creation.
5. AI for Coding
As software development continues to become increasingly complex, coding has emerged as another popular AI use case. AI tools are helping developers automate repetitive tasks, optimize code, and even assist in debugging.
A recent survey of the Stack Overflow community found that ChatGPT is the primary code assistant tool that professional developers and people learning to code use. The survey also shows that using AI is transforming how developers approach programming, allowing them to focus on higher-level problem-solving while AI handles time-consuming or error-prone tasks.
By leveraging AI in coding, you’ll gain hands-on experience with tools that can write code, suggest improvements, and help streamline the development process.
AI skills you can learn
- Learn How to Use AI for Coding. From debugging to optimizing, explore how AI can assist in writing and optimizing code, ultimately reducing development time and improving software quality with AI-powered coding tools.
- Generative AI on AWS: Generating Code with Amazon CodeWhisperer. Boost your productivity with Amazon CodeWhisperer by learning how AI-powered tools assist in code generation, improving efficiency and reducing errors.
- Data and Programming Foundations for AI. This beginner-level path covers the coding, data science, and math you need to get started as a Machine Learning or AI engineer.
6. AI for Data
Gone are the days when data analysis was a manual, time-consuming task reserved for data scientists alone. Today, AI models can sift through massive datasets in real time, identify patterns, flag anomalies, and even make predictions with impressive accuracy. Whether it’s customer behavior analytics, financial forecasting, or medical research, AI doesn’t just process data — it makes it actionable. Which is why AI for data is a popular use case for business leaders to focus their upskilling efforts.
AI can act as a supportive data analysis co-pilot — automating data cleaning and preparation, suggesting visualizations, and even guiding queries in natural language. Learning these AI for data skills lowers the barrier to entry and helps people become smarter, faster, and more effective with data.
AI skills you can learn
- Learn How to Use AI for Data Analysis. This course will teach you how to use AI tools like ChatGPT or Gemini for data analysis in Python. You’ll learn how to use AI as your personal analytics co-pilot.
- Learn How to Use AI for SQL. This beginner-level course focuses on generating SQL with AI, transforming natural language to SQL, and utilizing LLMs for SQL operations.
- Data Scientist: Machine Learning Specialist. This path is designed for beginners and focuses on solving problems at scale, making predictions, and finding patterns using Python, SQL, and algorithms.
How Codecademy can help you build AI skills
Per Skillsoft’s recently published C-Suite Perspectives Report, while senior executives feel their organizations have moved past the beginning phases of AI, many of their greatest challenges to implement AI skills hasn’t changed. They’re still looking to capitalize on these top AI use cases.
Whether you’re a team leader or an individual contributor, learning about AI with Codecademy is one of the smartest things you can do to further your career in tech.
Our interactive courses utilize industry-leading AI tools, so you can get hands-on experience working with AI systems as you learn about the concepts that power them.
And with our career paths, you can build a portfolio of impressive projects that show employers you can apply AI skills to real-world scenarios in these popular AI use cases.
Want to see what other challenges senior leaders are struggling with? Download Skillsoft’s recently published C-Suite Perspectives Report.
