Duolingo is adopting an “AI-first” approach to its business, and the language learning platform will reduce its reliance on human contract workers as it assigns AI their responsibilities.
In a memo to employees on Monday, Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn detailed the company’s official “AI-first” stance.
“AI is already changing how work gets done,” Ahn wrote in an email publicly shared through Duolingo’s LinkedIn account. “When there’s a shift this big, the worst thing you can do is wait.”
As part of its AI-first strategy, Duolingo will shift workloads from contractors to AI and “gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle,” per the email. The company will also reward AI use in hiring new employees and in performance reviews of existing employees. Teams will additionally only be permitted to hire new members if the group cannot automate the work.
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Duolingo has eliminated contract workers in favor of AI before. Last year, the company cut 10% of its contractors after reportedly deciding to use AI for translations.
However, Ahn reassured staff in the email that “Duolingo will remain a company that cares deeply about its employees,” and that being AI-first wasn’t about “replacing” workers with AI but about allowing existing employees to focus on creative work and problem-solving over repetitive tasks. The company said that it would support staff with full-time staff training, mentorship, and AI tools.
Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Ahn also explained why Duolingo was choosing to go all-in on AI now. He stated in the email that Duolingo bet big on mobile in 2012, focusing on creating a mobile-first app at a time when mobile apps were primarily companions for full-fledged websites. The move worked out well: Duolingo’s app won the 2013 iPhone App of the Year with 10 million downloads and grew organically after that. Now, Duolingo has over 500 million registered users.
“This time the platform shift is AI,” he wrote in the email.
Duolingo is focusing on AI by using it to create content and power features like Video Call, which Duolingo introduced in September. Video Call allows learners to practice speaking in their target language through a video chat with an AI character named Lily.
Duolingo isn’t the first company to recently announce an AI-first strategy. Earlier this month, Shopify CEO Tobias Lutke told all employees in a memo that “using AI effectively is now a fundamental expectation of everyone at Shopify.” Lutke told Shopify staff that they should maximize what they could do with AI before asking for more resources or additional human employees.
He also said that Shopify would add AI use questions to its performance and peer reviews.
Duolingo had a market capitalization of over $17 billion at the time of writing.