Duolingo Expands Course Offerings With AI
Duolingo has launched 148 new language courses, more than doubling its offerings. This significant update is the company’s largest content rollout to date, broadening access to non-English language courses in 28 app interface languages. As a result, Duolingo now reaches a much larger and more diverse global audience.
The new lessons cover Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin and are open to learners throughout Latin America, Europe, and Asia. The lessons are specifically designed for beginners and follow the CEFR A1–A2 proficiency levels. Features like DuoRadio for listening and Stories for reading comprehension are provided, with more advanced-level material being released shortly.
AI and Duolingo's Growth
Duolingo's co-founder and CEO, Luis von Ahn, highlighted the use of artificial intelligence in enabling this significant growth. He also mentioned that their use of AI and automation has helped them create quality content. That too, at a record-breaking pace.
Duolingo has also committed to an “AI-first” operational model. In this new approach, the company will phase out human contractors for tasks that can be automated, prioritizing hiring for roles where human expertise is still required.
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Streamlined Course Development Through AI
This shift is powered by Duolingo’s shared content system, which allows the company to quickly develop core language courses and localize them for diverse user groups. According to Jessie Becker, Senior Director of Learning Design, the use of generative AI has drastically cut down the time it takes to create courses.
Expanding Access to Asian Languages
This growth also provides new learning opportunities for Asian languages. Latin American Spanish and Portuguese speakers can now learn Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin, while European users who speak French, German, Italian, or Spanish can also learn these languages. In Asia, Duolingo now teaches its top seven languages, Japanese and Korean, to 12 regional language speakers, including Hindi, Tamil, and Thai.
With this enormous content refresh, Duolingo continues its efforts to make high-quality language education accessible to the world, and more and more, with the help of AI.
