Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn ended the policy of evaluating employee AI usage during performance reviews. The company originally introduced the mandate in an April 2025 memo as part of its AI-first strategy.
Internal feedback revealed employees felt pressured to use AI tools even when they provided no benefit to specific roles. Von Ahn stated that performance evaluations will now focus exclusively on job execution regardless of AI adoption.
This reversal contrasts with competitors like Meta and Google. Those firms reportedly continue to implement measures to track and encourage AI tool adoption among staff.