Instead of improving productivity, AI is creating ‘workslop’

Despite the now widespread use of AI in workplaces, workers aren’t actually becoming more productive, according to a new survey led by Stanford Social Media Lab and BetterUp Labs. 

The report finds that while employees are using modern AI tools more than ever, they’re using them to create subpar work. The new report calls the phenomenon “workslop,” which it defines as “AI-generated work content that masquerades as good work, but lacks the substance to meaningfully advance a given task.” In other words, it’s thoughtless, sloppy work that someone will eventually have to clean up. 

The problem is widespread up and down the corporate ladder. Per the report, 40% of employees out of 1,150 surveyed said they’ve received workslop in the past month, and that about 15.4% of the work they receive overall meets the criteria for workslop. Most commonly, workslop is shared between peers (40% of the time), but it doesn’t stop there: 18% of the time, workslop gets sent to managers. And it also happens in reverse: 16% of the time, managers (or even more senior leaders) send workslop out to their teams. 

The report says that two industries have been impacted the most: professional services and technology. But across all industries, the phenomenon is more than a minor annoyance. There’s an emotional cost to receiving workslop. More than half of respondents (53%) said they feel annoyed, 38% confused, and 22% are downright offended when they receive workslop.

Receiving low-effort work from employees may also change the way coworkers view said employees. “Approximately half of the people we surveyed viewed colleagues who sent workslop as less creative, capable, and reliable than they did before receiving the output,” the report said. Likewise, 42% of those surveyed said workers who generate subpar AI-generated work are less trustworthy; 37% even view them as less intelligent. 

In fact, 34% of respondents said that when they receive workslop they notify other teammates or their manager. Nearly a third (32%) said they are less likely to want to work with the workslop producer again.

While AI might make it easier to speed through work, using it carelessly may erode trust among coworkers just as fast.

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