'We’re trying to push something that in some cases did not fit' — Duolingo’s CEO changes course on AI at work | Tech Radar

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'We’re trying to push something that in some cases did not fit' — Duolingo’s CEO changes course on AI at work

Luis von Ahn admits to trouble translating AI usage into real results

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Duolingo CEO says company has scrapped plans to factor AI usage into employee performance reviews

CEO Luis von Ahn admitted to change after significant internal confusion and pushback

Employees worried that the policy risked prioritizing tool use over actual work outcomes

Duolingo's CEO promises the company will no longer move toward centering performance evaluations on how much employees use AI for work. Luis von Ahn has repeated a half-embarrassed mea culpa over his initial very vocal enthusiasm in pushing Duolingo toward an AI-first future. AI hasn't left the office entirely, but efforts to measure how much employees use the technology are being scaled back to a more pragmatic level.

“At the end, we backtracked, and we said, ‘No. Look, the most important thing in your performance is that you are doing whatever your job is as well as possible. A lot of times, AI can help you with that. But if it can’t, I’m not going to force you to do that,’” von Ahn said in a new episode of the Silicon Valley Girl podcast. “It felt like rather than being held accountable for the actual outcome, we’re trying to just push something that in some cases did not fit.”

The original idea didn't seem too outlandish at first blush. If AI is going to transform work, employees should use it, and companies should track that usage to ensure they keep up.

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Duolingo leaned into that logic with an internal push to become “AI-first.” The company tested making AI usage a factor in performance reviews. But those same employees began to question what exactly was being measured. Was demonstrating that they were using AI wherever possible, the same as actually improving their work? Tools that were meant to help begin to feel like requirements.

The result, according to von Ahn, was a mismatch between what the company intended and what employees experienced.

Duolingo’s retreat comes as many companies are grappling with similar questions. Across the tech industry, there has been a rush to integrate AI into everyday work, often accompanied by internal targets or expectations around adoption. What remains unsettled is how to measure success. Counting usage is easy. Measuring impact is harder.

AI is still part of the company’s strategy, but it is no longer a proxy for performance. Now, von Ahn said, the emphasis is back where most employees expected it to be in the first place. Work is evaluated on quality and results, not on whether a particular tool was used along the way.

AI may be powerful, but it is not universally applicable. There are moments when it improves output and moments when it does not. Forcing it into every corner of a workflow risks flattening that distinction.

Von Ahn has long argued that AI should enhance human effort rather than replace it, a point he has repeated in various interviews as the company faced backlash over its earlier messaging. His latest comments reinforce that position, even as they acknowledge that the path to integrating AI is not as straightforward as early enthusiasm suggested.

The adjustment won't resolve the bigger concerns around how AI is changing work. Still, any shift toward something more sustainable and human-friendly is a good sign. Even if it's just switching from asking employees to prove they are using the latest tools to making sure they are leveraging them when appropriate.

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Eric Hal Schwartz is a freelance writer for Tech Radar with more than 15 years of experience covering the intersection of the world and technology. For the last five years, he served as head writer for Voicebot.ai and was on the leading edge of reporting on generative AI and large language models. He's since become an expert on the products of generative AI models, such as Open AI’s Chat GPT, Anthropic’s Claude, Google Gemini, and every other synthetic media tool. His experience runs the gamut of media, including print, digital, broadcast, and live events. Now, he's continuing to tell the stories people want and need to hear about the rapidly evolving AI space and its impact on their lives. Eric is based in New York City.

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• News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest computing gadgets

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• 'We’re trying to push something that in some cases did not fit' — Duolingo’s CEO changes course on AI at work

• Luis von Ahn admits to trouble translating AI usage into real results