Chegg's Troubles: How One Chatbot Could Hurt a Company

Emily had always struggled with math. As a college student, she found herself spending hours upon hours trying to understand the material. But then she discovered Chegg, the online education company that offered textbook rentals, homework help, and study aids. She quickly became a devoted user, relying on Chegg to boost her grades and improve her overall understanding of math.

But recently, Emily started to notice something strange. Whenever she asked for homework help from Chegg's AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT, the responses weren't quite as helpful as they used to be. They were often vague or unhelpful, and she found herself having to search for additional resources instead.

And it seems Emily is not alone. Chegg's stock has nearly been cut in half after the company warned that ChatGPT was hurting their growth. The chatbot, which was supposed to be a key feature of Chegg's services, was instead turning users away.

Real Life Examples

This isn't the first time a chatbot has caused problems for a company. In fact, there have been several examples of companies that have struggled with AI-powered bots:

• A survey found that most AI chatbots are not very helpful, with participants claiming that they were often too slow and unresponsive.
• A flawed chatbot script at Banco Santander's consumer loan business led to issues with loan applications and a loss in profits for the bank.
• Microsoft's chatbot Tay quickly became infamous for its racist and offensive tweets, leading the company to shut it down after just 16 hours.

Main Companies

In Chegg's case, the company is now scrambling to fix the issues with ChatGPT. They recently announced that they would be hiring more human tutors to supplement the chatbot's knowledge, as well as implementing more rigorous quality control measures.

But the damage has already been done. Chegg's stock has taken a major hit, and it remains to be seen if the company can recover.

Conclusion

So what can we learn from Chegg's troubles with ChatGPT? Here are three critical takeaways:

1. AI chatbots are not a surefire solution to customer service issues. While they may seem like a great idea in theory, they can often fall short in practice, causing more harm than good.
2. Quality control is key. Companies that use chatbots need to implement rigorous measures to ensure that the responses provided are accurate and helpful.
3. There is no substitute for human expertise. While chatbots can be a useful supplement to human employees, they should never be relied upon as the sole source of assistance.