Duolingo Uses AI to Launch 148 New Courses in Record Time

Duolingo has launched 148 new language courses, marking its largest content expansion ever and more than doubling the number of courses on its platform.

The move makes Duolingo’s seven most popular non-English languages — Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin — available to all 28 supported user interface languages.

The update expands access for over a billion potential learners worldwide, including in Latin America, Europe, and Asia, said the company.

“Developing our first 100 courses took about 12 years, and now, in about a year, we’re able to create and launch nearly 150 new courses. This is a great example of how generative AI can directly benefit our learners,” said Luis von Ahn, CEO and co-founder of Duolingo in a statement on Wednesday. “This launch reflects the incredible impact of our AI and automation investments, which have allowed us to scale at unprecedented speed and quality.”

Historically, building a single Duolingo course could take years. But now, thanks to AI-powered tools and an internal “shared content” system, the company can build a base course and quickly localize it for multiple languages—dramatically cutting development time while maintaining quality. The courses primarily target beginner learners (A1–A2 level) and include features like Stories for reading and DuoRadio for listening comprehension.

The company previously said it is cutting workers to use AI tools instead and now we’re seeing what the company’s plans are after the role reductions.

For the first time, many users in Asia who previously could only learn English can now study top languages like Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin from their native tongues, including Vietnamese, Tagalog, Hindi, Tamil, and more.

Duolingo announced earlier this month it will be launching a course to teach anyone how to play chess.