The popular language-learning platform Duolingo has introduced 148 new courses created with generative AI and announced plans to replace contractors with machine learning technology to become an ‘AI-first’ company.
Duolingo confirms they’re going to start replacing contractors with AI
Their CEO says they will become an ‘AI-first’ company pic.twitter.com/DL97Dc2NuI
— Culture Crave ? (@CultureCrave) April 29, 2025
“It took us about 12 years to develop the first 100 courses, and now we can create and launch nearly 150 new courses in about a year. This is a great example of how generative AI can directly benefit our learners,” noted Duolingo co-founder and CEO Luis von Ahn.
Journalist Brian Merchant noted that the shift to AI is not a new policy for Duolingo. At the end of 2023, the company cut about 10% of its contractors, and in October 2024, another round of layoffs occurred, according to a former employee. In both instances, workers were replaced by artificial intelligence.
Merchant also highlighted a publication in The Atlantic about the unusually high unemployment rate among recent college graduates. It is likely that companies are employing AI instead of ‘white-collar’ workers.
“Almost every professional artist or illustrator I meet tells me they’ve lost clients and work because companies have opted for artificial intelligence instead of paying for human labor. Some have been entirely pushed out of their fields,” Merchant emphasized.
The crisis has arisen from a series of managerial decisions by executives aiming to cut labor costs and consolidate control within their organizations, the journalist noted. This is evident in the exodus of talent from creative industries, declining incomes for freelance artists, writers, and illustrators, and a tendency for corporations to simply hire fewer workers.
“The AI job crisis is not some SkyNet-style robot apocalypse, but the dismissal of tens of thousands of federal employees waving the banner of the first AI strategy,” added the expert.
Layoffs
According to data from the layoff tracking site Layoffs.Fyi, 121 tech companies laid off 52,305 employees in 2025. Among them, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Intel, and other firms announced job cuts to optimize and automate their operations. For comparison:
- in 2024, 551 companies laid off 152,922 employees;
- in 2023, 1,193 companies laid off 264,220 employees;
- in 2022, 1,064 companies laid off 165,269 employees.
The number of software developer job listings on the popular job search site Indeed has been declining since 2022.
Back in August 2024, British trade unions warned of the risk of millions of job cuts due to artificial intelligence.