Duolingo, the wildly successful language-learning app, is going all in on an “AI-first” strategy. CEO Luis von Ahn shared this thrilling news in April as the company steers through a treacherous, hyper-competitive course. It is this transition that the program hopes will increase scalability and efficiency. It has rightfully faced major pushback from users and critics for focusing on technology at the expense of human engagement. Duolingo rolled right through that controversy with some blowout quarterly earnings. Their subscription revenue beat expectations, highlighting the disconnect between public perception and their ongoing financial success.
During a quarterly earnings call on Wednesday, Luis von Ahn addressed concerns regarding the company’s growth projections, which fell within the lower end of initial estimates—between 40% and 45%. An investor questioned von Ahn about this discrepancy, prompting the CEO to acknowledge the impact of his comments on AI and their lack of context. We tended to go with a lower estimate because, as I said at the top with some of my remarks about AI, I did not do a good job on this. As a result of that, we received quite a bit of negative response on social media.
Duolingo’s decision to phase out contract workers in favor of generative AI has drawn criticism from some users who believe that the app’s quality is declining. They contend that the rush to integrate AI features into platforms undermines the learning experience. Still, von Ahn is undeterred, doubling down on the importance of AI to the company’s future. He emphasized, “Without AI, it would take us decades to scale our content to more learners.”
This sentiment reflects a broader industry trend toward automation and artificial intelligence, which many tech companies are adopting to drive growth and efficiency. Despite the growing pains of user perception, Duolingo’s top financial metrics show it on an extremely positive trajectory. In fact, the company recently announced it had surpassed its expected quarterly revenue, highlighting the strength of the company’s growth, even amidst the persistent backlash.
Luis von Ahn. Photo by J.R. Drawing on his prior experience as a Princeton in Asia Fellow in Laos, he’s helping to shepherd Duolingo through these growing pains so that the company can scale sustainably, in the long run. Duolingo continues to aggressively expand its content and improve its learning platform using state-of-the-art AI technology. Now, it needs to marry this innovation with a great user experience.
Amanda is a senior writer at TechCrunch. Her great expertise on the intersection of technology and culture made her an excellent choice to explain the huge ramifications of Duolingo’s choices to the tech world. The company’s recent growth trajectory, however, demonstrates remarkable resilience. The backlash does highlight an issue that’s critical to user trust and meaningful engagement in our increasingly automated future.