Launch Finance’s Post

How Duolingo grew its business using key strategies of constantly learning about customers through AI-based multi-armed bandit AB tests, gamifying language learning, and adaptive pricing based on capabilities. https://lnkd.in/gXgS69-J

Building a successful product is challenging, but turning it into a profitable company is an even greater feat. This is a great example of how AI, data integration, and data-driven decisions can turn a free app into a sustainable business. Success isn’t about getting it right the first time—it's about learning, adapting, and evolving with every iteration. https://lnkd.in/d2-r7UGA #AI #ABTesting #Personalisation #UserEngagement #CultureOfExperimentation

Over the past 5 weeks I've had to explain to several #recruiters and #hiring managers the idea that I don't define myself as a #DataScientist or #QuantResearcher, even though that's what I've done my entire career (changing the toolkit depending on the moment). With a background in #management, #finance, and #economics, analyzing #causality, #incentives, and #behavior is what makes my work spectacular. I recommend you watch this 7-minute video of how Duolingo does AB testing, understands social sciences (behavior), uses AI, and generates a credible incentive structure to impact customer decision making. Obviously, this can be done in any industry. #AI #SocialScience #incentives #Atlanta #Alpharetta https://lnkd.in/dp8xT5zA

Practical application of AI to supercharge outcomes.

I stayed up to watch Duolingo's annual conference, and the two most interesting features were Video Call and Friend Streaks. With Video Call, learners can practise speaking with Lily, a sassy animated character that is meant to teach you resilience. Duolingo Principal PM Zan Gilani explained that speaking is a skill that can only be mastered by actually practising, but it can be intimidating to talk to a native speaker. Hence speaking to an AI that doesn't judge. Personally, this is exactly what we see for K-12 students learning Chinese - many students are far more willing to speak to our AI bot than to their parents because a computer doesn't judge. That's why I'm a big proponent of voice chatbot for language learning. Although the space has been somewhat crowded recently, with competitors like speak.com, yourteacher.ai and babbel (and I also experimented with a prototype for kids using Cursor - https://lnkd.in/gKMf3q9j) Three random thoughts: 1) Duolingo's choice of an animated background with no words instead of a standard chatbot interface is interesting. I'm not sure if this is a pedagogical decision (i.e. to train learners' listening skills rather than reading) or to make it seem more engaging that the standard chat interface of its competitors. 2) Video Call being a Duolingo Max-only feature highlights an earlier issue I raised about transcription and LLM-powered features being expensive. Which complicates business models for Edtech vendors that traditionally do bulk sales at deep discounts to schools. 3) Friend streak, which is akin to having a workout buddy, is an interesting concept. It reminds me of an old game I used to play called Utopia, where you paired up with 24 other people in your kingdom to work towards a shared goal (e.g. waging war against an enemy kingdom or funding a dragon) #Duolingo #Duocon #AIinEducation #EdTech

I created an app using Streamlit to help children learn to read with their sight words. It just covers nouns for now because they are easier to visualize. I was primarily motivated to help my youngest son with his reading. I had a lot of fun on the project and received positive feedback from some parents, teachers, and others I shared it with so far. It includes an image(generated with help from various GenAI tools) for three choices for each word and audio for reading the choice out loud using gTTS (Google text to speech). The app is at https://lnkd.in/gvpkvZtC and the code is at https://lnkd.in/gyeNi3wG Let me know if you find it useful or have feedback. If there is interest it could be extended to include more vocabulary. It would also be nice to include the history of each learner's words seen, and which were successful so it could incorporate a spaced repetition system approach to learning. #streamlit #reading #parents #genai

Cool product du jour on Product Hunt 🍷🤌 LangAI: A language learning app that actually works to make you fluent. As someone fluent in two languages and trying to become fluent in three, I used Duolingo just like everyone else, but after a 500+ days streak (yeah 👹), I realized I still can't handle most everyday situations. I love that LangAI acts as a teacher or a friend. Right on your phone, you can type or talk to it, have real conversations, and practice everyday situations. The live feedback and mistake correction are also super helpful to know exactly where and WHY you made a mistake. Support the launch here ➔ https://lnkd.in/esENdm5M #producthunt #newapp #languagelearning

Duolingo just introduced a game-changer: AI-powered conversational practice through video calls! Now, you can have a real-time conversation with an AI that not only responds but even decides when to end the chat, just like a human would. It's impressive to see AI advancing to this level, where it can mimic human-like interactions and make decisions in conversations. This innovation might bring a little stress to English teachers since it shows how technology can potentially replace traditional teaching methods. https://lnkd.in/e2eg8Yy4 #duolingo #ai #english #samirramazanov

How to make learning as addictive as social media? Here is something I wish people asked me about learning #GenAI? How to learn consistently? Rather, most of the time, it is about sources and links - content that usually goes irrelevant over time. Hoarding content doesn't help. I was listening to Luis von Ahn, founder-CEO of Duolingo and it is a masterpiece of a Ted talk. My 8 yo is a poster child of how effective Duolingo has been in gamifying learning. She has been keen to go to Disney World and I told her to pick 3 challenges she wants to do post which I could take her to Disney World as a reward. The first one she chose, was to learn Japanese on Duolingo. It isn't a language I know or have spoken about. It is something she discovered and has started to work on herself. She almost thinks of the cute mascot Duo as a passive aggressive buddy that keeps her going. 'Amma, look, he is rolling his eyes at me. He thinks I can't do this'; she'd complain even as she tries to beat his 'impression of her'. She constantly brings up the leaderboard to show how she has topped it for the day. Duolingo apparently built AI models to learn about the best time for notifications and corroborated something they knew very instinctively - the best time to reach out is 24 hours from the first time you did. For if you were free at 5PM today, it is likely you would be at the same time tomorrow. I also love his vision of democratising learning across the world - something I am hugely passionate about. Like he says, screen time is frowned upon and next to addictive flashy apps, it is akin to making Broccoli as attractive as dessert. But you know what, my 8 yo would agree based on the number of things she uses Duolingo for regularly (Music, Hindi, Japanese and Math), on her own accord. So, if you are looking at upskilling on AI - maybe try gamifying it for yourself :) ******************************************************* Ranjani Mani #reviewswithranjani #Technology | #Books | #BeingBetter

#Duolingo has laid off (there's another phrasal verb to add to your collection) 10% of its workforce as it pivots to greater reliance on #AI. While the free app is undeniably a fun way to learn new vocabulary and to familiarise oneself with a new language using the perennial "trick" of repetition, anyone using Duolingo with the hope of acquiring fluency in a foreign tongue really needs to think again. Similarly, anyone who has dipped their toes in the murky waters of ChatGPT will know its propensity towards creative lying when it doesn't really know the answer to your question, not unlike some kind of algorithmical Boris Johnson or Donald Trump. Would you trust AI over an experienced, qualified teacher to give you the best teaching every time? Recently I stumbled upon (another phrasal verb there, take note) a presumably automated English translation of the Catalan expression "ets una puta crack" - a phrase which I would have translated as "you're a f-ing star". The words on the screen read "You're a crack whore". Maybe a day will come when AI will be programmed to stop making these mistakes. Until then, please don't lose the human touch and become a slave to the algorithm. #iamoxinity #ai #ia #gamification #learning #artificialintelligence #languagelearning #languages https://lnkd.in/dqdwny-9