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Duolingo clarifies AI, acquisition and workforce strategy following viral internal memo
Duolingo is continuing to explore AI-related partnerships to improve its curriculum, despite backlash from a recent announcement.
But there's way more to the unicorn language learning app's strategy for growth than just that, senior strategist Sisi Liu told at Innovation Works' Venture Expo on Tuesday. One key tenet is buying up other companies. A recent string of acquisitions highlights the company's approach: It brings in tech and talent that's better than what it could efficiently develop in-house, according to Liu.
'It's not like anything has materially changed about the facts of the world,' Liu told 'There's really, really cool innovations happening around foundation models, and around what that can mean for creating better education products. So, I think our stance on that is full steam ahead on finding really top-tier companies that can help bring new features to Duolingo.'
The recent fireside chat follows a wave of backlash after the company's CEO, Luis von Ahn, said in April that it would shift to an 'AI-first' organization. The original announcement by von Ahn included reducing human contractors if AI could perform their duties, but he has since clarified that AI will not replace human workers at Duolingo.
'It's about creating access to learning experiences that don't necessarily already exist for a lot of people,' Liu said. 'It's not saying, 'Hey, you'll replace one for one the foreign language teacher you have, or the tutor that you work with on a weekly basis, or whatever to practice language learning.' It's a supplemental experience on top of that.'
It's all a part of what the edtech company calls its 'Green Machine,' Liu said. Duolingo emphasizes building long-term relationships as it seeks out new partners to purchase and targets specific gaps in its own infrastructure to fill.
Build relationships early to improve your chances of selling
An important part of Duolingo's model is the design of its product. Its characters and their respective animations are an essential part of its success, according to Liu.
But a significant hurdle around 2022, Liu said, was finding the workforce to build those animations.
'We just were totally blocked in terms of bringing great product screens to learners, because we didn't have enough designers,' Liu said. 'We didn't have enough animators, artists [or] illustrators; our animation team was one person at that point.'
Because the company knew good design was a cornerstone of its product, Liu said it 'doubled down' on finding the best team to do it, part of the company's 'Green Machine' strategy for growth.
Duolingo acquired two Detroit-based animation studios — Gunner in 2022 and Hobbs in 2024 — after long-running partnerships with both. Duolingo prefers to prove startups' mettle before bringing them in-house, Liu said.
'Most of the time we're not acquiring these companies to run this business, but rather to join Duolingo,' Liu said, 'and in one fell swoop, add 10, 15 of the best people doing this in the best way in the world. That's really hard to do through traditional channels like hiring.'
Duolingo acquires when in-house builds seem inefficient
Expansions on its curriculum, like those into music and math, would have taken much longer to roll out without the help of startups, according to Liu. For example, the technology necessary to support new lessons, like pitch detection, could've taken years for the company's team to build.
UberChord, a Berlin-based startup that had already been partnered with Duolingo for some time, turned out to be the answer. The existing relationship, coupled with Duolingo's emerging needs, created a clear opportunity for acquisition, Liu said.
'We saw, like, 'Hey, there's something promising here,'' Liu said. 'But bringing [UberChord] in-house would allow us to develop faster, and then they would stop being distracted by basically selling B2B software to other folks that need their pitch detection [software development kit].'
Although this is a cornerstone of Duolingo's model, Liu said some partnerships aren't always feasible.
AI-image generators and game development studios are two examples she listed where Duolingo recognized that moving forward with an acquisition was not rational. In these cases, the company embraces a 'quick sprint' technique to assess what works and does not work about potential startups.
'Because our needs are changing so fast,' Liu said, 'it does not make sense to tie ourselves down with an acquisition or investment.'
