AI 'workslop' is piling up at work, costing companies millions

Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke recently criticized employees for handing unchecked AI emails and code to colleagues, calling them 'junk grenades.' Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn also walked back his earlier 'AI-first' stance, admitting AI still can't match employee creativity at scale, with about 20% of output being garbage.

Researchers call this 'workslop' — AI output that looks polished and acceptable but lacks real substance and needs rework. A survey of 962 U.S. full-time office workers by BetterUp Labs and Stanford's Social Media Lab found 52.7% had sent AI workslop to colleagues, and 38% had received it, spending an average of 3.4 hours a month fixing it.

Unlike ordinary low-quality work, workslop looks complete but is empty inside, like emails with broken links or simple code made needlessly complex by AI. Receivers see senders as less capable and less friendly, and 36% want to avoid working with them.

Rework costs keep rising. Last year 40% encountered AI workslop and spent 2 hours fixing it; this year it's 3.4 hours. By 2025 estimates, each employee spends $186 a month on fixes, and a 10,000-person company could lose up to $9 million a year in productivity.