Comment by Zavora

Chegg’s decline is a concrete example of how AI search is changing the web

There’s been a lot of debate about whether Google’s AI Overviews and tools like ChatGPT are actually harming publishers. One publicly traded company’s timeline is worth looking at: Chegg.

What happened (with sources):

2021: Chegg launched Uversity, a platform for educators to share academic content. (Wikipedia)

2023: ChatGPT emerged as a serious competitor in homework help. Chegg responded by launching CheggMate, its own AI product built on OpenAI’s models. (Wikipedia)

Late 2024: Chegg reported accelerating subscriber declines, widely attributed to users shifting to free AI tools instead of paid study platforms. (WSJ, company filings)

Feb 2025: Chegg sued Google, alleging that AI Overviews reduced traffic to Chegg by answering questions directly in search results, harming acquisition and revenue. (Search Engine Land, Reuters)

May 2025: Chegg laid off ~22% of its workforce (≈248 employees), citing competitive pressure from AI and changes in search behavior. (Reuters)

Oct 2025: Chegg announced another round of layoffs (~45%, ≈388 employees), explicitly referencing “the new realities of AI” and reduced traffic from Google to content publishers. (Reuters / SF Chronicle)

What the data suggests (more broadly):

Independent studies show that when Google AI Overviews appear, users are significantly less likely to click through to external sites.

“Zero-click” searches (where users get answers directly on the results page) have increased, especially for informational and educational queries.

The impact isn’t uniform — some publishers report minimal effects — but content that answers how-to, homework, or factual queries appears most exposed.

Why this matters:

Chegg isn’t a small blog or SEO-driven site. It’s a public company with audited financials, legal disclosures, and incentives not to exaggerate under scrutiny. Its filings and lawsuit don’t claim AI is “bad” — they claim that traffic flows are structurally changing.

This doesn’t prove AI search is “killing the web,” but it does show:

AI answers are substituting clicks, not just competing for them.

Entire business models built on informational content are under pressure.

“Build better content” may not be sufficient when answers are synthesized upstream.

Curious how others here see it:

Is this a temporary transition problem?

Or are we watching the unbundling of the open web’s traffic economy in real time?