After introducing a brand new technique for efficiency evaluations to incorporate evaluations of how successfully employees use AI, Duolingo founder and CEO Luis von Ahn mentioned workers began questioning the choice: “For some time,” von Ahn mentioned, AI utilization was a metric of firm efficiency evaluations.
But it surely gained’t be anymore, as soon as workers pushed again. Now, Duolingo has backtracked on utilizing AI use as a efficiency metric.
Workers had requested in the event that they had been merely utilizing AI for AI’s sake. “On the finish, we backtracked, and we mentioned, ‘No, look. A very powerful factor in your efficiency is you might be doing no matter your job is in addition to potential,’” von Ahn mentioned in a latest episode of the “Silicon Valley Girl” podcast.
“Quite a lot of occasions AI will help you with that, but when it may well’t, I’m not going to power you to try this. […] It felt like slightly than being held accountable for the precise final result, we had been attempting to push one thing that in some circumstances didn’t match.”
It’s not the primary time the corporate has backtracked on its AI insurance policies. Final April, von Ahn introduced that Duolingo would turn into an “AI-first” firm, even urging teams against hiring more employees until the workforce couldn’t automate their work. With the usage of AI instruments, Duolingo was capable of introduce 148 new language programs. However every week and a few main social media backlash later, von Ahn backtracked on those comments, and wrote in a LinkedIn post that he doesn’t view AI as a alternative for Duolingo workers.
Within the latest podcast episode, von Ahn appeared to take care of that perception. “Regardless of what the web might imagine, we’ve by no means executed a layoff right here,” he mentioned. “The way in which I see it, a single worker is simply far more productive now than they was once.”
Whereas von Ahn mentioned that Duolingo employees have turn into higher at leveraging AI, there are some circumstances during which AI does the alternative of boosting productiveness. For instance, AI instruments aren’t all that nice at producing a lot of narratives, typically arising with issues that don’t make any sense, he mentioned. Moreover, von Ahn mentioned that “it’s not but the case” that AI can code higher than people. In lots of circumstances, the tech doesn’t at all times work nicely on the subject of programming and when errors are inevitably made, they take longer to determine and debug.
“The blissful path is de facto quick,” von Ahn mentioned. “However the sad path makes it in order that it takes so lengthy that you find yourself spending extra effort on that than the time you saved on the opposite factor.”
Duolingo didn’t reply to Quick Firm’s request for remark.
Duolingo inventory (Nasdaq: DUOL) skilled a excessive level in 2025, however fell earlier this 12 months. Whereas the corporate crossed the $1 billion income mark final 12 months, Duolingo mentioned it expects 25% income progress in Q1 to $288.5 million—which falls well below Wall Street estimates. The corporate announced in a press release that it will announce its first quarter outcomes on Might 4.
