5 disruptions that ChatGPT can unleash

There are already 100 things you can do with ChatGPT and the whole world is figuring that out with total users crossing 100 million some time back. But what are the industries it’s likely to disrupt and what are the new ones that it will create? A look at some of that…

1. Search: In the 1990s the search industry was diverse and dynamic. There were many players trying to capture the market. In the 2000s, Google took a clear lead and in the 2010s it established a dictatorship. When we entered the 2020s there was no Google rival anywhere on the horizon.

In the 2022 Fortune 500 list, Alphabet was at No. 8 after its turnover crossed $250 billion and it is estimated that the revenue from search alone is in the 55-60% range. That’s quite huge. Now Microsoft is eyeing that market. Edge is a good browser and Bing is still around touching a 10% global market share in its best quarters. Edge + Bing + ChatGPT is Google’s first serious rival.

But here’s the thing. Even if this combo gets limited success, dozens of players will start attacking Google knowing that instead of building the perfect search engine (in which everyone has woefully failed) all they must do is build the perfect AI assistant. Interestingly you can use ChatGPT for your SEO keyword strategy and finding sources to improve that SEO. What will Google do when everyone employs this at a great scale? Will it be able to cope? How will the Google Spider and ChatGPT battle it out?

2. Coding: Coding was once the domain of hardcore techies. Soon youngsters and uneducated/unqualified self-taught hackers started mastering it. Finally came the low code no code options for further democratisation. Websites came up where you could build your own apps. Today ChatGPT can do basic coding and check for errors, making corrections. Everyone will be able to do coding and build their own apps.

But think of what the current coding geniuses could do. They could use ChatGPT as workers doing grunt work and concentrate on high level coding. The entire coding world will go to the next stage and what effect that will have on the global industry will be anybody's guess.

3. Academia: Schools and colleges have been doing the same things for centuries. The same classrooms, the same type of syllabi and the same methods. Till 2019 nobody saw anything changing and the institutes themselves were happy with the scenario. Covid was a big game changer. Educational institutes had to update their methods, go high tech, and embrace the online/hybrid mode. Many are still reeling from that disruption.

But tech is not done yet and ChatGPT could prove to be the biggest disruptor in the education industry. ChatGPT is superior to a regular boring teacher. Silly mundane assignments will be done with ease. Academia and research cannot ban ChatGPT and must embrace it. Teachers. Assignments. Syllabi. Activities. They all will have to go to the next level integrating ChatGPT into the learning process.

4. Creativity: ChatGPT can write essays, resumes, stories, scripts, poems… the list is endless. It can make jokes, create paintings, compose music, and even cook up recipes. As you can see all this has endless possibilities. At first it will master the lowest denominator and there is a market for that. But what happens when it gets better and better and becomes even second best to the greats? So many industries will be turned upside down.

Publishing. Journalism. Films. TV. Songs. Art. Stand-up comedy. Who knows what all will be affected. In any case it could end up being everyone’s first choice for brainstorming ideas to get started. Even in the world of social media, once you have established a brand, its focus and strategy, uploading then becomes a routine affair. What if ChatGPT totally took over that role?

5. AI assistants: We first had the iPhone assistant Siri, then the home assistant Alexa. While they have seen great commercial success, they haven’t truly become a “personal assistant” the way Sci-Fi imagined them to be. ChatGPT promises to be different because it can literally assist you with anything whether it’s at work and home. You can have a conversation with it, play games and seek suggestions on everything under the sun. It can be your teacher, mentor, and friend.

Today the world of robotics has made great strides. Imagine combining ChatGPT, Alexa and a humanoid robot. We have already entered the world of Isaac Asimov’s iRobot!