Duolingo Enrages Millennials and Gen Z With Its "AI-First" Controversy

For over a decade, Duolingo has been in the hearts of many people as the green owl has joked, threatened, and memed its way into the internet history books.

However, Gen Z and Millennials' love affair with the feisty owl may be at an end.

The language learning app announced a plan to institute an "AI-first" policy, changing how it provides service to clients. It was instantly met with backlash, stirring up controversy on the internet that could spell the company's doom.

Here's what we know about that unpopular Duolingo "AI-first" controversy and how people are reacting to the shift.

Language app Duolingo is all about helping you learn a new language and feel rewarded in the process. It harnesses dopamine and the reward center of the brain to make you feel good about achieving new learning milestones and knocking new foreign language words and phrases off your checklist.

But in April 2025, the company started a wildfire by announcing the "AI-first" policy which exploded into a controversy.

CEO Luis von Ahn sent an email on April 28, 2025, which the company posted to LinkedIn, reading, "Duolingo is going to be AI-first." He added, "AI is already changing how work is done. It's not a question of if or when. It's happening now. When there's a shift this big, the worst you can do is wait." He explained that the company will start phasing out contract workers to do what AI can do and that AI use will be one of the things they look for in future hires.

According to USAToday, the app's surprising shift to using AI came after President Donald Trump issued an order for public schools to begin incorporating AI into learning models and curriculum. A statement from the White House read, "By fostering AI competency, we will equip our students with the foundational knowledge and skills necessary to adapt to and thrive in an increasingly digital society."

The CEO went on to add that the company once bet on becoming a mobile app when it seemed like an unlikely path and "won big" as a result. So, he shared, he believes this shift ahead of the curve will be advantageous to getting the company to its stated "mission."

Unfortunately for Duolingo, their future mission may not include two key demographics: Gen Z and Millennial users. Because the reaction to the "AI-first" announcement has been nothing short of devastating for the language learning app.

The automation shift to AI across a variety of industries threatens jobs for those demographics perhaps most of all, making the shift enormously unpopular.

On TikTok, a wellspring of videos shows horrified and disgusted reactions to the announcement. One user's video calls the CEO out for being "out of touch" with its user base, marveling that he has lost support of Gen Z and Millennials in one fell swoop.

In the comments of another video, one user quipped, "So, the owl dying was foreshadowing?" referring to a publicity campaign early in 2025 that saw the iconic green owl meet its demise. Briefly.

Another user lamented, "It's amazing how one single act can destroy years of brilliant marketing."

Most of the comments seemed to be along the same line of surprise and disgust, with many users sharing that they had wasted their efforts on a streak of daily check-ins "for nothing."

Whether or not this decision tanks Duolingo long-term will take a long time to determine. But if Duolingo wanted to isolate and lose two of its biggest user demographics, they knew exactly how to do it.

The shift to AI may seem inevitable, but only if companies capitulate and obey in advance, as several users pointed out on TikTok.