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Duolingo CEO Louis von Ahn has clarified his company’s stance on artificial intelligence after a controversial memo earlier in 2025, stating the business will not lay off full-time employees because of AI.
In April, the chief exec came under scrutiny after publicly sharing an email sent to staff, detailing the company’s plans to push ahead with an “AI-first.”
Some comments in the memo – such as a policy to only hire if a team couldn’t automate more of their work, and plans to reduce Duolingo’s reliance on contractors – sparked concerns the company would replace employees with AI.
Now von Ahn has clarified his memo in an interview with the New York Times, including the possibility of job cuts: “We've never laid off any full-time employees. We don't plan to.”
What has Duolingo CEO said about AI?
In April, Duolingo shared von Ahn’s memo on LinkedIn, in which the company set out its plans to embrace AI.
“AI is already changing how work gets done,” the letter said. “It’s not a question of if or when. It’s happening now.”
The CEO of the language learning app noted that being AI-first means his company will “need to rethink much of how we work,” underpinned by five “constructive constraints.”
Those guardrails included to “gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle,” to evaluate employee use of AI during performance reviews, and to only allow hiring if a team has shown it “cannot automate more of their work.”
In the memo also von Ahn Ahn also said Duolingo could not “wait until the technology is 100% perfect,” instead needing to "move with urgency and take occasional small hits on quality.”
Coupled with laying off 10% of its contractors in January 2024, the announcement prompted significant backlash and debate online over how the new approach would impact the company’s human workforce.
In his interview with the Times, von Ahn clarified that embracing AI would not mean Duolingo would not mean job cuts for full-time staff and admitted he “did not give enough context” in the memo.
“This was on me,” the chief exec said
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Employees ‘will be able to accomplish more’
The CEO was also keen to defend Duolingo’s commitment to its people and set the record straight on his AI stance.
“Internally, this was not controversial,” he continued. “Externally, as a publicly traded company, some people assume that it's just for profit. Or that we're trying to lay off humans… that was not the intent at all.”
In April’s memo, von Ahn said Duolingo “will remain a company that cares deeply about its employees,” promising more “training, mentorship, and tooling” for staff as they adjusted to the new AI-centric approach to work.
Several months on, he added more context about how he sees AI shaping hiring, jobs, and work at the firm.
“What will probably happen is that one person will be able to accomplish more, rather than having fewer people,” the CEO said, noting that some jobs – such as engineering roles – will be reshaped over the next five years.
Other executives, such as AWS CEO Matt Garman, have similarly warned developers that AI could shift the nature of their work to innovation and product development.
Von Ahn also revealed how Duolingo has been helping staff explore and learn about AI, including “f-r-A-I-days”, a weekly slot where staff are encouraged to "experiment on how to get more efficient to use AI.”
Other employers like Canva, Thomson Reuters, and PwC have similarly invested significantly in AI experimentation, giving workers structured opportunities away from their work to test, learn, and share feedback with colleagues.
American workers have reported fears about losing their jobs to AI, as reports show the technology is already leading to major cuts.
