A growing workplace contradiction: AI use is surging, yet productivity isn’t. AI-Generated “Workslop” Is Destroying Productivity found that 41% of employees encounter “workslop”—AI-generated content that looks polished but lacks real substance. Each instance costs almost two hours of rework, eroding productivity, trust, and collaboration.
Workslop tax – These AI outputs offload cognitive effort onto coworkers. Instead of thinking deeply, some employees let AI create surface-level reports, slides, or summaries that others must fix. This “effort transfer” can cost large organisations millions in lost productivity each year.
Culture problem – Many leaders inadvertently fuel workslop by mandating AI use everywhere, without setting clear expectations for quality or relevance. Indiscriminate imperatives breed indiscriminate use.
Pilot mindset – Teams with both high agency and optimism (“pilots”) use AI purposefully to enhance creativity. Those with low agency (“passengers”) use it to avoid effort. Pilots generate value; passengers generate slop.
∴
Leaders must model purposeful AI use, define quality norms, and encourage experimentation with intent. The goal isn’t just AI adoption—it’s better work. AI should collaborate with humans, not dump work on them.
