Future Opportunities

The largest technology companies that are able to position themselves well will certainly benefit from the explosion of Chatbot use. While the monetization of Chatbots is currently limited, models such as pay per use, subscription, or data collection and advertising seem likely. 

Microsoft is a major investor in OpenAI, and Google already has Bard available for use in select countries. Amazon, Apple and Meta are also rumored to be working on their own NLP Chatbots. These large technology companies are likely targets for investors interested in investing in chatbots.

As Chatbots become a necessity for a wider range of businesses, ventures that will be able to provide custom solutions will also grow. This may include businesses that already provide internet based services, like web hosting, Software as a Service, and Cloud based computing.

Companies, such as Writesonic are already creating custon chatbots based off of ChatGPT 4.0 to suit the chatbot needs of their clients. This system makes use of the client's data for training to ensure that the chatbot is able to answer appropriately.

Chatbots require hardware to work, and their growth will see the need for ever more processing and storage. The chatbots that the public is most familiar with, such as ChatGPT and Bard, are based on cloud computing. As such, their hardware needs are located in large data centers.

This is part of the explanation for the growth of NVIDIA's share price, which has exploded over the past year from around $180 - $487. NVIDIA has been recognized as a leader in AI chip making technology.

As we have already seen from applications like Duolingo Max and Khanmigo, Chatbots are well positioned to play a supporting role in education. Apps leveraging the power of AI will have an advantage over those without.

The integration of Chatbots into Game-Based Learning could be a tipping point that brings serious games into mainstream schools. The ability of Chatbots to adapt to the different needs and interests of students should provide better engagement.

Platforms such as Roblox are already working to leverage ChatGPT, allowing developers to power their Non-Player Characters with natural language.  Roblox has resources explaining how educators can use the platform in their classes.

Educational institutions often have demanding IT requirements with technology spread across multiple schools, buildings or even towns. Deploying chatbots to handle some of the basic troubleshooting and diagnostics before generating a helpdesk ticket will help to make support more efficient. This type of chatbot solution could be either rule based, or NLP based. 

Just like every technological revolution that affects many industries, business will need training to help employees adapt to the new realities and develop the skills required for this new paradigm. Opportunities exist for developing and pressenting curricula for all kinds of industries.

Education, unlike other industries, does not as strongly feel the effects of competition to foster change. Instead, much of the impetus for change comes from grassroots professional development. Educational institutions will be eager for current, relevant and well presented professional development opportunities.

There is already a large market on video sites such as YouTube for AI content. It is reasonable to suggest that as the demand for Chatbots increase, so will the demand for instructional blogs and vlogs.

Experts in chatbots would be well advised to build content around chatbots and their potential uses.

With the explosion of short format social media such as TikTok and Instagram reels, many educators have begun to look for opportunities for professional development that are both time efficient and useful.

Building content around the use of chatbots in education should be a productive investment in time and effort.

Just as the internet started a new wave of plagiarism, so has the advent of generative chatbots. Opportunities exist for the development of systems to detect AI in submitted academic work.

Websites such as ZeroGPT are already working hard to identify the involvement of AI. The challenge will be continuous and difficult as Chatbot models progress and continue to be increasingly natural in their products.

The educational market will require both plagiarism and AI detection as long as students have access to the internet.

In situations where there are concerns about academic integrity during online assignments and exams, preventing access to any type of Chatbot may be necessary. In addition, concerns about privacy and sharing of confidential information may need to be addressed.

Just as many institutions do their best to block inappropriate websites and content, opportunities exist where educational institutions need to prevent access to Chatbots.

With concerns of bias and inequity stemming from the datasets that train chatbots, future opportunities exist for researchers to discover areas of prejudice and discrimination in NLP chatbots. Do chatbots use inclusive language? What cultural biases exist? How are non-digital cultures represented?