Duolingo’s ‘AI-first’ memo sparks a backlash

In April 2025, Duolingo’s chief executive Luis von Ahn announced that the language-learning company was going « AI first », and would start tracking employees’ use of AI as part of their performance reviews. Contractors doing work that AI could now handle would gradually be phased out.

The backlash was immediate and fierce. Social media exploded with criticism, and many loyal users threatened to delete the app altogether, accusing the company of prioritising automation over the human touch that had made its lessons popular in the first place.

Employees themselves pushed back too, questioning whether they were being pressured to use AI « for AI’s sake » rather than because it genuinely improved their work. Some worried the announcement signalled hidden plans to shrink the workforce.

Facing sustained criticism, von Ahn walked back parts of the memo. He told journalists the backlash was « on me » and admitted he « did not give enough context » when he first announced the strategy. He also removed AI use as a formal metric in performance reviews.

Von Ahn insisted throughout that Duolingo had never laid off any full-time employees because of AI, and had no plans to do so. Even so, the episode has become a case study in how quickly an AI announcement can spark a backlash, even at a company built entirely around technology.

Adapted from Fortune and Customer Experience Dive, 2025