The Pushback Against Duolingo’s ‘AI-First’ Strategy Was Minimal

On Wednesday, Duolingo announced it had exceeded its quarterly revenue expectations, despite facing considerable criticism for choosing generative AI over hiring human employees. Following this news, Duolingo’s stock jumped nearly 30%.

In April, CEO Luis von Ahn stated that Duolingo would shift to becoming an “AI-first” company, gradually decreasing its dependence on contract workers. He also recommended that teams avoid expanding their staff unless they were unable to automate additional tasks. As a part of its generative AI effort, Duolingo introduced 148 new language courses, more than doubling its previous offerings.

“Without AI, scaling our content to reach more learners would take us decades,” von Ahn remarked during that announcement. “We owe it to our learners to deliver this content as swiftly as possible.”

Despite some users expressing concerns about the app’s quality declining due to these AI features, the company’s financial results tell a different story. Duolingo now anticipates generating over $1 billion in revenue this year, with daily active users growing by 40% year over year. Although this growth is significant, it is on the lower end of the company’s forecast, which estimated an increase between 40-45%, a point raised by an investor during Wednesday’s earnings call.

“The reason we ended up on the lower end was that I discussed AI without providing enough context, which resulted in some backlash on social media,” von Ahn clarified. “Our primary goal was to create a more positive sentiment online. We halted the posting of edgy content and shifted to posts aimed at enhancing our positive sentiment, which has proven to be effective.”

On TikTok, many of the top comments on Duolingo’s videos express criticism of the company’s AI strategy. Some sarcastic users ask if videos featuring multiple people are generated by AI, to which Duolingo replies, “Nope. Made by our great team!”

However, even as public opinion appears to be shifting in a more favorable direction for Duolingo, the company prioritizes its financial health… and from its perspective, that’s what truly matters.