Duolingo's "AI-first" memo drew a backlash. Its user numbers kept climbing.

August 2025 — Duolingo's chief executive has walked back part of the memo that made the company a symbol of AI replacing workers. Here's what the memo said, what it cost, and what went wrong.

Cost and outcome (as of Aug. 18, 2025)

Daily active users: 47.7 million in Q2 2025, up 40% from 34.1 million. (Q2 2025 letter)
Revenue: $252.3 million in Q2, up 41%. Paid subscribers rose 37% to 10.9 million. (Q2 2025 letter)
Content output: 148 new AI-built courses. Duolingo said its first 100 courses took "about 12 years." (TechCrunch)
Contractor jobs cut, and the cost of the AI tools: not disclosed.

What the memo said

In an all-hands email in late April, posted on Duolingo's LinkedIn account, co-founder and CEO Luis von Ahn said the company would be "AI-first." Duolingo would "gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle," he wrote, according to The Verge, and "headcount will only be given if a team cannot automate more of their work." He also wrote that "this isn't about replacing Duos with AI."

Two days later, Duolingo announced 148 courses created with generative AI, roughly doubling its course catalog. "Developing our first 100 courses took about 12 years, and now, in about a year, we're able to create and launch nearly 150 new courses," von Ahn said. The new courses are mainly designed for beginner levels, TechCrunch reported. TechCrunch reported that users had posted complaints about lower-quality content and that some had deleted the app.

What the numbers did

In its Q2 shareholder letter, Duolingo reported 40% growth in daily active users, and in the same letter it raised its full-year bookings guidance. TechCrunch reported that the shares rose almost 30% after the results and that Duolingo expects more than $1 billion in revenue this year.

The CEO said the backlash still cost something. Duolingo had estimated DAU growth of 40% to 45%, and the result came in at the bottom of that range. "The reason we came [in] towards the lower end was because I said some stuff about AI, and I didn't give enough context. Because of that, we got some backlash on social media," von Ahn said on the earnings call, according to TechCrunch. "We stopped posting edgy posts and started posting things that would get our sentiment more positive. That has worked." On TikTok, TechCrunch reported, the top comments on Duolingo's videos often remained criticisms of its AI approach (TechCrunch).

The walk-back

In a New York Times interview reported by TechCrunch and Fortune, von Ahn said, "This was on me. I did not give enough context." He added: "We've never laid off any full-time employees. We don't plan to." He said the contractor workforce "has gone up and down depending on needs." He also said: "What will probably happen is that one person will be able to accomplish more, rather than having fewer people." Internally, he said, "this was not controversial."

What went wrong

The message. A memo about contractors and headcount came across as a plan to replace people, and the CEO has since said it lacked context.
Contractors. The walk-back covers full-time employees. The memo's own target was contractors, and Duolingo hasn't said how many contractor roles AI has replaced.
Quality questions. Users complained about AI-made content, TechCrunch reported. Duolingo hasn't published quality measures for the new courses.
What we don't know yet: how many contractor jobs ended, what the AI tooling costs, and whether the slower end of the DAU range was really caused by the backlash.

Our follow-up question for Duolingo

How many contractor roles has Duolingo stopped using because of AI since April, and how does it check the quality of AI-made courses?

Later developments (added Oct. 2026)

In its Q4 2025 letter, filed Feb. 26, 2026, Duolingo said DAU growth "decelerated throughout 2025," after no quarter below 40% from Q2 2022 to Q2 2025. It forecast about 20% DAU growth for 2026 and said it would "prioritize user growth over monetization." It estimated more than $50M of foregone bookings, putting 2026 bookings growth at around 11%, compared with the nearly 20% it believes it could otherwise reach. It set a goal of 100 million DAUs in 2028. (Q4 2025 letter)
In its Q2 2026 letter, filed Aug. 5, 2026, Duolingo reported 58.7 million DAUs, up 23% and "ahead of our expectations." Bookings grew 8%, and net income fell to $33.2 million from $44.8 million. (Q2 2026 letter)

Sources

Jay Peters, The Verge, “Duolingo will replace contract workers with AI,” April 2025. theverge.com
Aisha Malik, TechCrunch, “Duolingo launches 148 courses created with AI after sharing plans to replace contractors with AI,” April 30, 2025. techcrunch.com
Duolingo, Q2 2025 shareholder letter (SEC Form 8-K exhibit), Aug. 6, 2025. sec.gov
Amanda Silberling, TechCrunch, “The backlash against Duolingo going 'AI-first' didn't even matter,” Aug. 7, 2025. techcrunch.com
Anthony Ha, TechCrunch, “Duolingo CEO says controversial AI memo was misunderstood,” Aug. 17, 2025. techcrunch.com
Jessica Coacci, Fortune, Aug. 18, 2025. fortune.com
Duolingo, Q4 and full-year 2025 shareholder letter, Feb. 26, 2026. sec.gov
Duolingo, Q2 2026 shareholder letter, Aug. 5, 2026. sec.gov

Disclosure: [not in copy] Editor placeholder