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Duolingo Went All In on AI, Ignored the Backlash, and Broke Every Record
4 min read.
Midas AI
August 08, 2025
In early 2025, Duolingo made a polarizing move that sent shockwaves through the EdTech world. The company pivoted sharply to an AI first strategy, replacing a significant number of contractors and pushing generative AI to the center of its learning experience.
The backlash came fast. Critics called it soulless. Users on social media questioned the loss of human oversight. Educators warned that cultural nuance and pedagogical quality would suffer.
But none of it stopped Duolingo.
In fact, the company just reported its best numbers ever.
The Results No One Saw Coming
According to Duolingo’s second quarter earnings and reporting from TechCrunch, the gamble paid off in every way that matters. Revenue surged 57 percent year over year. Daily active users hit an all time high of 26.1 million. And 88 percent of English learners are now using GPT4 powered features through the Max subscription.
While the company faced criticism for phasing out human moderation and content review, the AI enhanced experience proved to be faster, more adaptive, and more engaging.
Lesson quality improved. Session times went up. User retention climbed.
Inside the AI Shift
Instead of relying on teams of human reviewers, Duolingo now uses large language models to refine lessons, generate interactive feedback, and power real time language roleplay.
The Duolingo Max tier, launched with GPT4 integration, offers features like Explain My Answer and conversation practice with dynamic AI characters. This tier has become a major growth engine, expanding to nine new markets and driving significant upsell from free users.
What critics predicted would alienate users actually made the product better for most of them.
What This Means for AI Founders
Duolingo’s AI transition shows the power of product led transformation. The company did not try to win the debate on social media. It just kept building, improving, and measuring outcomes.
This is the playbook, absorb the backlash, make the product better, and let results do the talking.
For EdTech and SaaS founders, the takeaway is clear. You do not need perfect consensus to innovate. You need conviction, data, and a clear path to value.
AI backlash is inevitable. But so is progress when the product actually works.
The Takeaway
Duolingo’s story is no longer just about a cute green owl. It is about how to lead through controversy, execute at scale, and prove that AI can create real educational outcomes.
They faced the fire. Then they flew past it.