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Anthony Di Pizio, The Motley Fool
Tue, May 19, 2026 astatine 7:35 AM CDT 6 min read
I person followed Duolingo (NASDAQ: DUOL) banal since it went nationalist successful 2021, but I didn't really bargain it until March of this year. It was down by much than 79% from its June 2025 grounds precocious erstwhile I decided to dive successful astatine a clip erstwhile astir investors were fretting implicit 2 imaginable headwinds for its business.
Duolingo operates the world's largest integer connection acquisition platform. Management precocious announced a program to absorption connected idiosyncratic maturation for the adjacent mates of years, which has already caused a slowdown successful the company's gross and net growth. At the aforesaid time, determination person been concerns that artificial quality (AI) could disrupt the platform's success.
Will AI make the world's archetypal trillionaire? Our squad conscionable released a study connected a little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly," providing the captious exertion Nvidia and Intel some need.
Personally, I deliberation Duolingo's renewed absorption connected idiosyncratic acquisition volition output important semipermanent rewards for shareholders, and I besides judge AI volition beryllium a tailwind, not a threat, to its business. The banal has already jumped 25% from my archetypal acquisition terms of astir $90, and portion it's mode excessively aboriginal to state victory, here's wherefore I deliberation importantly much upside could beryllium ahead.
AI is enhancing the learning acquisition
Duolingo's occurrence stems from its mobile-first approach, which puts connection acquisition astatine the fingertips of practically anyone with a smartphone. Plus, its gamified and highly interactive lessons support learners engaged, which is the cardinal to monetizing them implicit the agelong term.
Duolingo had 56.5 cardinal regular progressive users astatine the decision of the archetypal 4th of 2026 (ended March 31), which was up 21% compared to the year-ago period. The bulk of them were escaped users who Duolingo monetizes done advertising, but 12.5 cardinal of them were paying a subscription interest to unlock further features to accelerate their learning.
While immoderate investors judge caller AI-powered translation tools volition marque Duolingo's level obsolete, the institution is proving it tin usage this caller exertion to its advantage.
In 2024, it launched a caller diagnostic called Video Call, which is lone disposable to users who wage for a Super Duolingo oregon Duolingo Max subscription. It uses an AI-powered integer avatar to assistance users signifier their overseas connection speaking skills, and during the archetypal quarter, the mean fig of spoken words per idiosyncratic who engaged with the diagnostic much than doubled compared to the year-ago period. In different words, Video Call is already a monolithic tailwind for engagement.
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