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Case Study: How the Duolingo English Test partners with Decagon

Duolingo Case StudySourced & dated by Case Study Desk
Key facts · TL;DR
Company
Duolingo
Industry
Technology
Challenge
A prior vendor deflected ~30% and couldn't launch chat automation
Headline result
Duolingo English Test reaches 80% chat deflection within a month of going live on Decagon

Key results

80%
Chat deflection rate
vs ~30% with prior vendor
~1 mo
Time to go live on chat
500M
Duolingo users
platform total

The challenge

The Duolingo English Test team supported high-stakes, time-sensitive inquiries at scale. A previous AI vendor deflected about 30% of email tickets and, after a year of effort, still could not launch chat automation, leaving agents to handle volume manually and maintain the system heavily.

The solution

Duolingo deployed Decagon for chat, going live within about one month of first conversations. Decagon's system syncs FAQ updates automatically every hour and provided intuitive content-management and QA tooling.

With the previous vendor, at least half my week was dedicated to maintaining their system. With Decagon, it's been a night-and-day difference.

IR
Ian Riggins
Senior Operations Manager, Duolingo English Test

The results, in context

The case study reports an 80% chat deflection rate out of the gate, up from the prior vendor's roughly 30% email deflection. Reduced chat volume let agents focus on more complex inquiries and lowered the maintenance burden.

Products used

Decagon Chat