Ever since AI entered the digital realm, corporations have triggered a new trend of systematically replacing human workers with AI systems. Many global companies, including Ikea, BlueFocus, and Turnitin, have already laid off workers, replacing them with AI. In this bandwagon, Duolingo also announced replacing contractors with AI. This recent AI-based lay-off sparked concerns among contract-based workers in big corporations about job security and reskilling initiatives.
Dualingo Layoffs in the Last Two Years
Duolingo is a language learning app that hires translators, writers, instructors, and other educationists on a contract basis. In the last two years, as the wave of AI jolted the digital domain, the company started laying off contractors and replacing them with AI. In 2023, Duolingo cut around 10% of its contractor workforce, replacing them with AI. Similarly, in 2024, the language learning app laid off translators and writers. Commenting on these layoffs, Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn said,
“AI is already changing how work gets done. It’s not a question of if or when. It’s happening now. When there’s a shift this big, the worst thing you can do is wait.”
From this statement, it is evident that Duolingo is optimistic about the integration of AI in its app. In the near future, there could be more replacement of human contractors with AI. Therefore, the concerns of writers and translators about their job security are valid, and there is a need for reskilling among educationists and contract-based workers.
