In an internal email sent to staff and posted to LinkedIn, Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn announced that the company is going to be “AI-first”, which will affect contractors and their use of AI in hiring and performance reviews.
Ahn said the company will “need to rethink much of how we work” and that “making minor tweaks to systems designed for humans won’t get us there” and added that headcount will only be approved if a team cannot automate any more of their work.
While the company makes the AI transition, Ahn insisted that “Duolingo will remain a company that cares deeply about its employees” and that the changes are about removing bottlenecks to free up staff for more creative work.
This follows a similar memo from Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke, who told employees that AI would be mandatory before teams requested more headcount or resources.