Beware of “workslop”

A business leader told me recently: “I read the report — everything was clean, well phrased… but empty. You can tell ChatGPT wrote it.”

I see it too.

In some deliverables.

In some documents.

In those texts that sound right but say nothing.

This phenomenon now has a name: workslop.

What workslop hides

A 2025 Harvard Business Review study describes workslop as AI-generated work that looks complete but brings no real value.

According to BetterUp Labs, 40% of employees say they received workslop this month — and each time, it takes an average of two hours to fix.

“I had to reread, recontextualise, correct… sometimes even redo what my colleague should have delivered.” — Testimony cited by BetterUp (2025)

The danger is clear: the workload shifts. The person generating the output “saves time”, but the one receiving it loses much more.

Another telling example

A business leader recently shared a situation he still talks about with a sense of embarrassment.

He had to submit an important document. Pressed for time, he ran everything through AI. Copy. Paste.

The result: a fluid document… but incoherent.

When his partner read it, he said: “I didn’t understand. It’s not clear. What are you trying to say?”

And at that moment, he knew. He had “rushed” the text. No rereading. No verification. He had left his professionalism at the door.

I told him: “What you just described is exactly workslop.” Because yes, AI can save us time. But if we don’t reinvest that time into:

• quality,
• rereading,
• meaning,

then we gain nothing. We simply dig the void faster.

Why it’s exploding now

1. Speed above all else

AI promises efficiency. But speed has become a reflex.

As a result, depth disappears behind the urge to “finish quickly”.

2. Lack of ownership

Many people use AI without adding their posture.

Under the pretext of “not enough time”, they forget to inject their thinking, rigor and values.

Delivering a hollow text means engaging your credibility.

3. Company culture

When culture rewards volume over depth, workslop becomes a collective habit.

Delivering fast often means delivering empty.

4. The illusion of a polished text

Because the output is smooth and well-structured, we assume it must be right.

But a clear sentence is not necessarily a clear idea.

It’s the trap of the “pretty” that hides the “empty”.

The tool isn’t the problem — posture is

Believing that “good prompting” is enough is forgetting the essential. AI doesn’t think. It executes.

It’s up to you to:

• provide the frame and context
• check meaning and transitions
• inject your tone, logic and perspective

Without this, the output remains a shiny shell — hollow inside.

The risks

• A loss of credibility: more than 50% of readers perceive authors of workslop as less trustworthy and less creative (HBR, 2025).
• Invisible costs: hours spent correcting, reframing, rewriting.
• A decline in trust: when deliverables lack depth, teams — even subconsciously — question the competence of those who produced them.
• An AI adoption without meaning: a transformation that is fast, but rootless.

And now?

Leaders, managers, team leadersn, project owners…

There is often a blind spot in ongoing transformations. You equip. You train. You move fast. But do you really know how your teams are using AI?

Have you defined guidelines? A usage charter? A clear posture? A framework for meaning?

Because if you don’t know what is happening inside your organisation, you inadvertently engage your image, your credibility — and sometimes even your partners’ confidence.

And even when teams have been “trained”, without follow-up, without experience sharing, without internal relays, the risk remains.

Framing AI usage is protecting your organisation.

Above all, it’s reconnecting your practices to meaning.

What I propose

• Bringing depth back into AI practices. Not more prompts. More awareness.
• Re-anchoring quality, coherence and meaning.

Because AI doesn’t work in our place. It works in place of what we no longer take the time to do.

So let’s take the time to think again.

And if it’s time to open this topic inside your organisation, let’s start with a conversation.

About the author

Micheline Boutrin Deroire

Founder of PAS À PAS DIGITAL, strategic consultant in AI applied to professional practices and the human transformation of organisations.

She supports managers, executives and team leaders who want to integrate artificial intelligence into their practices while cultivating conscious managerial posture and an aligned culture of change.

Her approach connects four pillars: AI, digital optimisation, organisational practices and posture — to transform without losing alignment.

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+596 696 37 66 90 • [email protected]

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Distinctions (2024)

Best Innovation & Strategic Change Consultancy Leader – Western Europe

Digital Transformation Expert of the Year – France