A confusing trend is emerging in companies that use generative artificial intelligence. While employees are adopting the technology, many organizations are not seeing a positive return on their investment. The Harvard Business Review reports on a phenomenon called “workslop”, which researchers from BetterUp Labs and the Stanford Social Media Lab have identified as a potential cause.
Workslop is defined as AI-generated work that appears polished but lacks the substance or context to be genuinely useful. This low-effort content shifts the burden of work from the creator to the recipient. Colleagues who receive it must then spend extra time and effort to interpret, correct, or completely redo the task.
The problem is widespread, according to an ongoing survey of over 1,150 U.S. employees. The research found that 40 percent of workers have received workslop within the last month. On average, employees reported spending nearly two hours dealing with each instance. This hidden cost, which the researchers call the “workslop tax”, amounts to an estimated $186 per employee per month. For a company of 10,000 people, this could result in over $9 million in lost productivity annually.
Beyond the financial impact, workslop is eroding professional relationships and trust. Approximately half of the survey respondents viewed colleagues who sent workslop as less creative, capable, and reliable. Over a third perceived them as less intelligent and trustworthy. Consequently, 32 percent of employees who received workslop reported being less likely to want to collaborate with that person in the future.
To combat this, the report suggests that leaders should stop issuing broad mandates to use AI for all tasks. Instead, they should model thoughtful and specific applications of the technology. Companies should provide clear guidelines and best practices to ensure AI is used to enhance work, not to avoid it. The researchers advise framing AI as a tool for collaboration rather than a shortcut for individual tasks. This approach encourages a mindset where employees use AI purposefully to improve their work, which ultimately supports shared company goals.