The unstoppable rise of AI workforce
Let’s circle back to think outside the box: it’s not like corporate jargon wasn’t already bad enough. Now, a corporate life full of passive-aggressive emails and tedious PowerPoint presentations is joined by a new villain.
A new HBR-published study (in collaboration with Stanford and BetterUp) argues that the real drag on productivity today isn’t inefficiency or process. It’s what they call “workslop.” The term refers to AI-generated content that “masquerades as good work, but lacks the substance to meaningfully advance a given task.”
According to their research, 40 % of employees report they’ve received such workslop, and each incident costs nearly two hours of rework. One estimate even places a monthly hit of US$186 per employee from workslop alone.
Communication has always been rubbish
AI workslop didn’t make corporate comms rubbish. It’s just making it worse.
It’s not surprising AI workslop happened, but I feel that a vital nuance has been missed (I doubt I’m alone in thinking this): it’s not like AI invented crap communication. Even though we didn’t have a name, lazy or ineffective communication has been a feature of office life since we started working in them.
We have probably been doing it since we began communicating as a species – maybe even the early human monkeys in 2001: A Space Odyssey were promising to go for the low-hanging fruit.
Communication between us was bad right from the beginning and no AI to be seen
I consider myself fortunate: I’ve always been a relatively good communicator, and I’ve had a career in comms. But I recognise that good communication is not necessarily an indication of expertise. There are plenty of people I know who are extraordinary talents but who are terrible communicators.
Democratising communication
It seems to me that the other side of the “workslop” coin is that LLMs have the potential to democratise communication for people who may not be strong in that area. It’s a boost for the neurodivergent.
It’s a lift for anyone who isn’t a great communicator 100% of the time (that’s all of us). I’ve written a fair bit about decision fatigue and how it underpins the human machinery we’re all working with. I’ve seen how comparatively less efficient I am at communicating, primarily due to years of trying to bash out service page copy at midnight or writing a newsletter late at night (like this one).
Humans get tired, but AI doesn’t. That means when we’re staring down a blank page at the end of a long day, AI can be that tireless friend ready to give us a head start on structuring ideas or punching up copy.
Curation and iteration are required, but this has always been the case with human writers as well. That’s why editors exist.
I’ve said it before: we are in the midst of a significant technological transformation that is, and will continue to be, messy. I don’t think workslop is the end of good communication in business, and it’s likely to get worse.
But AI didn’t start rubbish comms.
We did.
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