As someone who’s passionate about Chegg’s offerings, it might come as a welcome respite that the company is struggling to keep up with demand during those chaotic times when you were sitting in class. Chegg’s inventory plummeted by a staggering 99% since its 2021 highs, wiping out a staggering $14.5 billion in value, as the company lost over half a million paid subscribers. As income continues to decline quarter after quarter, concerns arise about whether the company will be able to sustain its debt payments.
For many people who have attended school in recent years, Chegg is a well-known name. Established in the early 2000s as a textbook rental service, the company subsequently diversified its offerings by developing online research guides. In its next phase of growth, it evolved into a comprehensive platform featuring pre-composed answers to a wide range of common homework questions.
The launch of ChatGPT has significantly disrupted Chegg’s entire business model, essentially rendering its core operations obsolete. For years, the corporation employed hundreds of contractors to develop comprehensive answers to common questions across various topics, an endeavour that requires significant time and effort – without ensuring that the experts possess the solution to your specific inquiry. Given our familiarity with vast digital archives, ChatGPT has undoubtedly digested nearly every webpage, likely encountering a plethora of historical inquiries from users.
As the buzz surrounding ChatGPT grew, many college students opted to abandon their $20-a-month Chegg subscriptions and turn to the AI-driven chatbot instead.
Despite developing its own AI offerings, Chegg is finding it difficult to convince investors that the company still retains value in a market dramatically altered by ChatGPT’s emergence?
“With no cost involved, this service delivers results swiftly, allowing users to rest assured that any concerns will be addressed without unnecessary anxiety,” Jonah Tang, an M.B.A. A student at Level Loma Nazarene College in San Diego praised the advantages of using ChatGPT for academic support over Chegg.
According to a recent survey conducted by funding financial institution Needham among college students, 30% intend to utilize online learning platform Chegg for the upcoming semester, marking a decline from the 38% recorded in the spring. Conversely, a significant increase is expected with 62% of respondents planning to leverage AI-powered language model ChatGPT, up from the 43% reported earlier this year?
Without a clear strategy in place, it’s uncertain whether Chegg can effectively address the root causes of declining revenues and stem the decline? The company underwent significant restructuring, eliminating 441 positions – a quarter of its overall workforce. The organization is endeavoring to concentrate its efforts on attracting and engaging “curious learners” through the introduction of comprehensive, AI-powered tools, complemented by live counseling services.
Despite this being a promising approach, what’s arguably most disheartening is that, in 2022, staff were met with disappointment when their requests for assets to develop AI tools for automating solutions went unaddressed. During the pandemic, the corporation observed a significant surge in demand for digital solutions as people sought answers rapidly.
Despite initial denials, Chegg’s leaders delayed implementing AI tools until ChatGPT’s release; yet, internal concerns persisted regarding the chatbot’s tendency to generate inaccurate answers.
Despite the convenience offered by online resources like Wikipedia, many college students seem willing to overlook potential risks in their pursuit of ease and efficiency. While colleges caution against relying on Wikipedia, many students continue to utilize its resources, opting to scrutinize sources by accessing reference lists instead. Despite their capabilities, chatbots like ChatGPT lack a genuine understanding of complex topics such as mathematics; instead, they rely on pattern recognition and linguistic manipulation to generate responses that mimic mathematical concepts. While they may return solutions that appear suitable, they aren’t. It’s as if having a calculator that functions correctly half the time. While chatbots excel in discussing historical past, their accuracy must be thoroughly verified.
Perhaps Chegg could make more of an effort to help users grasp this concept. Despite widespread apathy among college students, Chegg’s fortunes are ticking upwards.
