Duolingo CEO's all-hands email to employee says 'we are becoming AI-First', and these jobs will go

Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn has announced a significant strategic shift for the company, declaring a move towards an “AI-first” operational model. In a memo to employees, shared on LinkedIn, Von Ahn underscored Duolingo’s commitment to the swift and comprehensive integration of artificial intelligence into its workflows. He also clarified that this transition will lead to the elimination of certain job roles that can be effectively automated by AI.

“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,” he said in the memo.

“Al isn't just a productivity boost. It helps us get closer to our mission. To teach well, we need to create a massive amount of content, and doing that manually doesn't scale. One of the best decisions we made recently was replacing a slow, manual content creation process with one powered by Al. Without Al, it would take us decades to scale our content to more learners. We owe it to our learners to get them this content ASAP,” he added.

Duolingo CEO says some jobs will be gone
As per the CEO’s memo, the strategic shift will affect three key areas: a “gradual” cessation of reliance on contractors for tasks automatable by AI, the incorporation of employees' AI proficiency into hiring processes and performance evaluations, and a policy where team expansion will only be considered if further automation proves insufficient.

We'll be rolling out a few constructive constraints to help guide this shift:

• We'll gradually stop using contractors to do work that Al can handle
• Al use will be part of what we look for in hiring
• Al 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
• Most functions will have specific initiatives to fundamentally change how they work

This move towards AI-driven efficiency isn't new for Duolingo. The company previously reduced its contract workforce by 10% in early 2024 due to AI-powered content generation , following similar AI-related reductions in 2023.

Von Ahn clarified in the recent memo, however, that this AI push is intended to augment, not replace, full-time employees.