O’Reilly online learning platform saw huge spikes in consumption of AI-related content in 2024, while consumption of Python and Java content declined.
It’s perhaps not a surprise, but demand for AI-related skills has soared, according to technology educator O’Reilly, which just released its annual technology trends report. By contrast, interest in programming languages Python and Java has taken a bit of a nosedive, the company reports.
The O’Reilly Technology Trends for 2025 report, released January 6, examines the most-sought-after technology topics consumed by 2.8 million users of O’Reilly’s online learning platform. The rise of interest in AI topics is indicated by increases in consumption of content about prompt engineering (up 456%), AI principles (up 386%), and generative AI (up 289%). Consumption of content about GitHub Copilot, an AI-powered programming assistant for software developers, increased by 471%, reflecting developers’ enthusiasm for tools that enhance productivity, the report said.
“We aren’t concerned about AI taking away software developers’ jobs,” wrote O’Reilly vice president of content strategy, who authored the report. “Ever since the computer industry got started in the 1950s, software developers have built tools to help them write software. AI is just another tool, another link added to the end of that chain.” The next wave of AI development will be building agents — software that can plan and execute complex agents, according to the report.
O’Reilly also found increased interest in security topics including governance, risk, and compliance (up 44%), application security (up 17%), zero trust (up 13%), and compliance skills (up 10%).
Other findings in the O’Reilly Technology Trends for 2025 report:
- Consumption of content related to GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) models declined 13%, signaling a shift toward foundational AI knowledge over platform-specific skills, O’Reilly said.
- Consumption of data engineering content increased 29%, underscoring a pivotal role for data in driving AI applications.
- Consumption of CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) content grew by 11% and CompTIA Security+ content grew by 13%.
- The cloud has reached saturation, at least as a skill users are studying, O’Reilly said.
- Demand for Python content was down 5.3% and demand for Java content was down 13%, while Rust content saw a 9.6% increase.
The report is based on users’ consumption of content on O’Reilly’s online learning platform from January 1, 2024, to September 30, 2024.
