Stack Overflow's forum is dead thanks to AI, but the company's still kicking (sherwood.news)

Stack Overflow, once the central hub for developers seeking technical assistance, has seen a dramatic drop in user engagement due to the rise of powerful AI coding assistants like ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot. Traffic to the site has plummeted, with question submissions dipping to levels reminiscent of its early days in 2008. Despite this decline, the company has successfully pivoted to monetize its extensive repository of community-generated content, reporting a doubling in annual revenue to $115 million. This turnaround is attributed to enterprise solutions such as “Stack Internal,” a generative AI-powered service used by 25,000 companies, and the licensing of its vast database to AI firms, allowing them to leverage the site's expertise. This shift showcases a broader trend in the AI/ML landscape, where legacy platforms must adapt to the disruptive capabilities of generative AI. While Stack Overflow’s forum appears to be waning, its business model emphasizes the necessity of quality, curated data for AI development. CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar highlights that while basic queries are now often handled by AI, the complex questions still find a home on Stack Overflow, solidifying its role as a valued data provider in the ever-evolving tech ecosystem. This evolution raises significant implications for the future of knowledge-sharing platforms in an AI-dominated landscape.