Duolingo Embraces ‘AI-First’ Strategy, Replacing Contract Workers
Duolingo, the popular educational technology company, has announced plans to transition to an ‘AI-first’ approach, replacing contract workers with artificial intelligence (AI). In an email to employees shared on LinkedIn on April 28, CEO Luis von Ahn explained that this significant shift would require rethinking many of the company’s current processes.
“Being AI-first means we will need to rethink much of how we work. Making minor tweaks to systems designed for humans won’t get us there,” Ahn emphasized. The decision is likened to Duolingo’s strategic bet on mobile in 2012, which led to their app winning the 2013 iPhone App of the Year and significant platform growth.
The company plans to integrate AI into various aspects of its operations, including hiring processes, performance reviews, and work processes. Ahn highlighted that AI would enable the creation of more content at scale, improve features like ‘Video Call’, and potentially offer teaching quality comparable to the best human tutors.
“AI isn’t just a productivity boost. It helps us get closer to our mission,” Ahn’s email reads. “To teach well, we need to create a massive amount of content, and doing that manually doesn’t scale.”
While acknowledging that this transition might lead to ‘occasional small hits on quality’ due to AI not being ‘100% perfect’, Ahn stressed that the company ‘can’t wait’ for the technology to mature. Duolingo aims to move with urgency to become ‘AI-first’.
Despite the significant changes, Ahn reassured employees that Duolingo ‘will remain a company that cares deeply about its employees’. The CEO emphasized that current employees would receive ‘more training, mentorship and tooling for AI’, framing the shift as an opportunity to remove bottlenecks and enhance the work of existing staff.
“This isn’t about replacing Duos with AI,” Ahn wrote. “It’s about removing bottlenecks so we can do more with the outstanding Duos we already have.”
Duolingo’s move comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order on April 23 to promote the integration of AI in K-12 schools, aiming to better prepare students for a rapidly evolving technological landscape.
The White House stated that fostering AI competency would ‘equip our students with the foundational knowledge and skills necessary to adapt to and thrive in an increasingly digital society’.
