Chatbots basically killed a startup I was working with a couple years ago. We had really nice apps, with a realistic exit strategy. Then came "The Pivot", and we were all working on chatbots. Didn't take long for me to leave that company, who went out of business not long after.
Sounds like the company was dead anyway and you are mistaking causation. Companies that are "alive" don't pivot. Companies that are dying people to avoid death. That the company had to pivot suggests the owners decided the exit strategy wasn't actually realistic.
A pivot is like a "Hail Mary" pass... risky and unlikely to work -- something that only makes sense when time is running out and you have nothing left to lose.
Or... if your company pivoted when the end wasn't near, the leadership was greatly incompetent, which means you pretty much never had a chance in the first place.
Interesting to note: the poster read the signs and made the right move at the right time in any case.
The PTBs at my last place of employment wasted an enormous amount of cycles on chatbots, despite pleading that the available platforms to use all sucked.
