AI replaces Duolingo’s contract workforce

Duolingo’s recent announcement on LinkedIn has created quite a stir in the human-versus-AI debate, in favour of AI. Recently, an all-hands email by Duolingo’s CEO, Luis von Ahn, was posted on LinkedIn. The email announced, loud and clear, that "We'll gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle”, taking its first step in becoming an AI-first company. 

The company was founded in 2011, and since its inception, it has been known for making bold decisions unconventional for its time, emerging stronger as a result. CEO Luis von Ahn begins his email by pointing out, “Just like how betting on mobile in 2012 made all the difference, we’re making a similar call now. This time the platform shift is AI.”

Duolingo is an American app that helps its patrons learn 40+ languages in addition to music and math. It uses bite-sized lessons to facilitate speaking, reading, listening, and writing to build strong vocabulary and grammar skills. 

In the detailed email, he elaborates, “AI is already changing how work gets done. It’s not a question of if or when. It’s happening now. When there’s a shift this big, the worst thing you can do is wait. In 2012, we bet on mobile.” 

While others were focused on mobile companion apps for websites, he adds, “we decided to build mobile-first because we saw it was the future. That decision helped us win the 2013 iPhone App of the Year and unlocked the organic word-of-mouth growth that followed.”

While assuring that Duolingo still “cares deeply about its employees”, he clarifies that manual contractors have limitations when it comes to cost-effective scalability, which may set the company back at least a couple of decades. According to the CEO, AI interventions have also helped the company “build features like Video Call that were impossible to build before”.

For Duolingo, “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”. 

The email emphasises the finality of the decision and gives a disclaimer saying, “Getting AI to understand our codebase will take time. However, we can’t wait until the technology is 100% perfect. We’d rather move with urgency and take occasional small hits on quality than move slowly and miss the moment.”

The language learning app has also put forth some important guidelines for its staff. They are as follows:

• We’ll gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle
• AI use will be part of what we look for in hiring
• AI use will be part of what we evaluate in performance reviews
• Headcount will only be given if a team cannot automate more of their work

The company has also forecast an annual revenue which is above the Wall Street expectations, according to Reuters. 

While analysts have estimated a revenue of $965.9 million in 2025, the company expects a revenue between $962.5 million and $978.5 million. The increased expectations are stemming from the anticipated increase in subscriptions due to the app's new AI features like the video call. 

CEO Luis von Ahn signs off the email promising the employees that the company is going to support them with “more training, mentorship, and tooling for AI in your function”. 

At the beginning of this month, another successful business, Zomato, was also in the news for laying off 600 customer support associates and replacing them with an in-house AI chatbot called Nugget. 

According to a Times of India report, Nugget automated 15 million monthly interactions across Zomato’s platforms that include Blinkit and Hyperpure and resolved 80% of queries without human intervention. 

The advent of artificial intelligence has brought about massive insecurity in the job market, making employees across the service sector question their jobs. 

One cannot help but draw a parallel between the Industrial Revolution of the 17th century and the AI revolution of the 21st century. What remains to be seen is whether, much like the former, even the latter ends up changing the economy forever.