Duolingo's CEO says the company backtracked on evaluating AI use in performance reviews — here's why

Luis von Ahn said he won't force employees to use AI when it can't help them in their role. Bloomberg/Getty Images 2026-04-13T10:28:12.147Z Share Copy link Email Facebook WhatsApp X LinkedIn Bluesky Threads lighning bolt icon An icon in the shape of a lightning bolt.

Impact Link Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in. Duolingo has "backtracked" on evaluating AI use in performance reviews, its CEO said. Luis von Ahn said it felt like the company was pushing something "that in some cases did not fit." The CEO faced backlash last year for a memo positioning Duolingo as an "AI-first" company. AI-generated summary Summaries are generated by an AI model trained on Business Insider's articles. AI may make mistakes or provide inaccurate/incomplete information. We're unable to load that answer right now. Please try again. How is AI use impacting job roles? How do companies balance AI and employee tasks? Why did Duolingo face backlash over AI? What are the drawbacks of an "AI-first" strategy? What industries are adopting AI in reviews? For many white-collar workers, AI use is becoming a job requirement. Loading audio narration... At Duolingo, however, it's no longer part of performance reviews, the company's CEO, Luis von Ahn, said on the April 10th episode of the "Silicon Valley Girl" podcast.The CEO said that after the company introduced a strategy to evaluate AI use in performance reviews, employees began asking, "Do you just want us to use AI for AI's sake?" "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," he said."It felt like, rather than being held accountable for the actual outcome, we were trying to just push something that in some cases did not fit," he added. Von Ahn announced that employee AI use would be tracked in performance reviews in an April 2025 memo outlining the company's "AI-first" strategy. The change came alongside other "constructive constraints" that the CEO said the company would introduce, such as looking for AI use when hiring, and gradually stopping the use of contractors to do "work that AI can handle."He later clarified on LinkedIn that the company was still hiring at the same speed, and that he didn't see AI replacing what Duolingo's employees did, after his memo prompted an online backlash. A Duolingo spokesperson told Business Insider the company has used AI for years to personalize learning and expand access, and continually refines its approach."Our teams' work depends on human judgment, expertise, and creativity. AI tools assist with that work; they don't make decisions or replace the people building Duolingo," the spokesperson said. Duolingo's walk-back on performance reviews comes as a host of other companies have introduced policies to incentivize and track AI usage among staff.Meta has set goals for how much some employees should use AI tools, Business Insider exclusively reported in March. Meanwhile, non-technical employees at Google have been told they are expected to use AI in their workflows, which, in some cases, would be factored into performance reviews, sources told Business Insider's Hugh Langley.