Duolingo stops tracking AI use

Duolingo stops tracking employee AI use for performance reviews

Duolingo has stopped tracking employees’ use of AI tools for performance reviews, according to its CEO. The decision comes as the company continues to report strong business scale—Duolingo has reportedly passed $1B in revenue in 2025 and reached 50 million daily active users—while its stock has fallen after previously peaking.

The policy shift matters because it addresses a growing workplace friction point: whether employee use of AI is treated as a productivity lever to manage performance, or as a general tool that can vary by role and workflow.

By discontinuing tracking specifically for performance evaluation, Duolingo is signaling that it will not use AI usage data as a metric to judge individual performance. That can reduce incentives for employees to game measurement systems, and it may also lower privacy and trust concerns that can arise when companies monitor “how” workers use AI.

In practical terms, the change may mean employees can use AI tools without fear that usage patterns will be converted into review scores or promotion signals.

What to watch

• Broader AI governance trends: More companies are likely to define acceptable AI use and training, while avoiding direct measurement of tool usage for evaluation.
• Policy clarity over surveillance: The emphasis can shift from tracking behaviors to setting expectations for outputs, quality, and compliance.

Duolingo’s move doesn’t end workplace AI policy debates, but it does highlight an approach that prioritizes trust and clear performance standards over monitoring how frequently employees interact with AI during daily work.