Language learning platform Duolingo is shifting to an artificial intelligence-focused business model that will fundamentally change how the company operates and evaluates employees, CEO Luis von Ahn announced in a company-wide email this week.
The strategic pivot mirrors the company’s successful 2012 bet on mobile technology, which von Ahn credits for Duolingo’s subsequent growth and recognition as Apple’s 2013 iPhone App of the Year.
“AI is already changing how work gets done. It’s not a question of if or when. It’s happening now,” von Ahn said. “When there’s a shift this big, the worst thing you can do is wait.”
Operational changes coming
The company plans to implement several workforce policies to accelerate AI adoption, including:
- Gradually eliminating contractor positions for tasks AI can handle
- Incorporating AI usage into hiring criteria and performance reviews
- Limiting new headcount to teams that cannot further automate their work
- Developing function-specific initiatives to overhaul work processes
“Making minor tweaks to systems designed for humans won’t get us there,” von Ahn said. “In many cases, we’ll need to start from scratch.”
Content creation benefits
The company has already replaced its “slow, manual content creation process” with AI-powered systems, according to the announcement. This shift addresses a critical scaling challenge for the educational platform.
“To teach well, we need to create a massive amount of content, and doing that manually doesn’t scale,” von Ahn said. “Without AI, it would take us decades to scale our content to more learners.”
Employee impact
Despite the technological shift, von Ahn emphasized that the strategy isn’t aimed at eliminating jobs but redirecting human talent.
“This isn’t about replacing Duos with AI. It’s about removing bottlenecks so we can do more with the outstanding Duos we already have,” von Ahn said. “We want you to focus on creative work and real problems, not repetitive tasks.”
The company plans to provide additional training, mentorship and tools to help employees adapt to the new direction.
