Duolingo's latest move translates to concerns about the future of work
The language app has made a cost-cutting decision that could soon become a trend in the workplace.
Language app Duolingo (DUOL) - Get Free Report is further traveling down the road of artificial intelligence. The company has "offboarded" roughly 10% of its contractors, after they concluded their projects at the end of 2023, and is replacing them with AI to complete the tasks they were responsible for, according to a new report from Bloomberg.
The company recently confirmed with Bloomberg that none of the job cuts affect full-time employees, and that employees and contractors already use AI in their work at the company.
Related: Amazon has allegedly found a controversial way to cut its workforce
Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn said in an earnings call last year that the company has been using AI for years to make its products “more personalized and engaging” and has been continuing to experiment with it throughout its products.
“We're also embedding the recent advances in this type of technology throughout our products and the company,” said Ahn. “For example, we're using generative AI to speed up our script writing for Duolingo Stories and to more efficiently scale our course content. We're using generative AI to continue to innovate on Duolingo Max, which is a higher-tier offering.”
A user on Reddit, who claims that they were a contractor who was recently "off boarded" from Duolingo in December, alleges that the company cut a “huge percentage” of its contractors who did translations for the language app after it figured out that AI can do translations quicker and save money.
“I worked there for five years. Our team had four core members and two of us got the boot. The two who remained will just review AI content to make sure it’s acceptable,” wrote the user in a Reddit post. 
The rise of AI in the workplace has raised concerns amongst employees on the impact the technology will have on their employment. According to a recent survey from CNBC and SurveyMonkey, which polled over 7,000 workers in the U.S., 42% of workers expressed some level of concern about the impact AI will have on their jobs.
The survey also found that workers who use AI at their position “are nearly twice as likely to be concerned about its impact on their job, compared with those who do not use AI at work.”
The move from Duolingo to give a portion of its contractors the boot also comes amid the U.S. Department of Labor’s crackdown on companies misclassifying workers as “independent contractors.”
On Jan. 9, the department announced a final rule that will revise its guidance on determining if a worker at a company is an employee or independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The effort is aimed to help prevent employers from cutting costs by labeling workers as “independent contractors” which makes them not responsible for providing that worker with certain protections.
“The misclassification of employees as independent contractors may deny workers minimum wage, overtime pay, and other protections,” said the U.S. Department of Labor in its announcement. “This final rule will reduce the risk that employees are misclassified as independent contractors while providing a consistent approach for businesses that engage with individuals who are in business for themselves."
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