Duolingo‘s massive language course expansion marks a significant shift in language learning accessibility, more than doubling its offerings to support diverse linguistic backgrounds. This strategic move demonstrates how AI is transforming educational content creation, as the company pivots to an AI-first approach that dramatically accelerates course development from years to months, potentially reshaping how language education scales globally.
The big picture: Duolingo is adding 148 new language courses to its platform, more than doubling its current offerings and making its seven most popular languages available across all 28 supported language interfaces.
Key details: The seven most popular languages—Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin—are now accessible through all of Duolingo’s language interfaces.
- Spanish and Portuguese speakers can now learn Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin through the app.
- Speakers of fifteen European languages gain access to Asian languages, while speakers of ten Asian languages can now learn all seven top languages.
- English speakers receive two new language options: Swedish and Tamil.
Learning approach: The new courses are primarily designed for beginning-level speakers and include immersive stories and DuoRadio features to enhance comprehension.
- More advanced-level courses will be rolled out in the coming months.
Behind the expansion: Duolingo’s course expansion comes alongside a strategic shift to an “AI-first” approach, replacing many human content creators with artificial intelligence.
- CEO Luis von Ahn noted that developing their first 100 courses took approximately 12 years, while AI enabled the creation of nearly 150 new courses in just one year.
- The company now builds a base course and uses AI to quickly customize it for dozens of different languages.
What they’re saying: According to CEO Luis von Ahn, the AI strategy isn’t about replacing humans but rather “removing bottlenecks” to accomplish more with existing employees.
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