Stop the slop

WHAT’S ON DECK

• Tell Me More: The #1 skill in an AI-powered workforce

• Troublemaker Spotlight: Dr. Maya Shankar, Cognitive Scientist, Author, and Podcast Creator and Host

• Inside Track: Leaders on the move

• Dear FQ: I’m not as vocal as some of my coworkers. How can I make my impact known?

• Poll the Pack: How often do you truly stop and listen to your teams and coworkers?

TELL ME MORE

Stop the slop

“Slop” might not be a word you’ve heard a lot unless you grew up on a farm. But now? It’s found its way into our everyday vernacular.

AI workslop is “AI-generated work content that masquerades as good work, but lacks the substance to meaningfully advance a given task.” And it’s showing up everywhere. You’ve scrolled past it on social media. Now it’s creeping into workplace deliverables, emails, decks, and reports that sound smart, but say nothing.

Many companies have embraced AI wholeheartedly. In the last year, a Gallup Poll showed that the number of organizations that utilize AI-led processes doubled in two years. A majority of Americans say they interact with AI at least several times a week, with 46% using it at least once a day. One might assume this surge in AI usage would supercharge efficiency, but in reality it’s often producing more noise than progress.

While businesses have invested in AI and encouraged their employees to use it, according to a MIT Media Lab report, 95% are not yet seeing a payoff. The work may appear polished and pleasing to the eye, but to quote Cher in Clueless, it amounts to a Monet: "It's like a painting, see? From far away, it's okay, but up close, it's a big old mess.” 

Workslop is becoming more and more common, with a BetterUp and Stanford University survey finding it has come across the desks of 40% of employees in the past month. This affects productivity. When AI slop leaves one desk (the workslopper) and travels to someone else’s (the workslopped), it shifts the burden of responsibility. The Harvard Business Review found that this occurs between peers (40%), from employees to managers (18%), or down the chain of command (16%). What was artificially generated can either be unhelpful, incorrect, without context, or lacking depth so that the workslopped has to fix it or completely start over. And this takes time, an average of almost 2 hours, costing a company on average $186 a month per employee. For a company with 10,000 workers, it amounts to a loss of over $9M each year. That’s monumental for businesses in the U.S. that spent between $35M - $40M investing in this technology.

It’s also important to note that workslop is impacting company culture and interpersonal relationships. What was done as a “quick fix” by the workslopper has a lasting impact on their professional reputation. AI can be a powerful tool, but it can’t replace the skills that make work work: judgment, nuance, and the ability to ask, “Does this even make sense?” Without using critical thinking, laziness produces workslop. And it places people who have received such shoddy work in an uncomfortable position where they have to decide whether or not to speak to the individual about their AI usage or report it to management. 34% of the workslopped are contacting their supervisors or speaking to other coworkers about these situations.

According to a Harvard Business Review survey, worksloppers’ competency begins to come into question as they are viewed by others as less intelligent (37%); less trustworthy (42%); and not as creative, capable, or reliable (50%). It erodes the foundation of the working relationship so much that 32% of employees are less likely to want to work with the workslopper again. 

What’s more, AI is impacting how we think. A study by MIT’s Media Lab had people divided into 3 groups while completing essays over a handful of months. The groups were separated by what additional research its participants could use: open AI’s ChatGPT, or a Google search, or only their own knowledge. An electroencephalogram (EEG) was then used to measure the writers’ brain activity. Throughout the months-long testing process, the ChatGPT group “consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels.” Their work ethic also suffered. The group that did the best? The ones using only their brain. 

When each group was asked to summarize their essay without any tools, the ChatGPT group displayed the worst memory for what they had written (or copied and pasted). Matteo Wong, a tech journalist at The Atlantic, says that artificial intelligence “could completely reorient our relationship to knowledge, prioritizing rapid, detailed, abridged answers over a deep understanding and the consideration of varied sources and viewpoints.”

Companies can’t afford to be passive in the age of AI. It’s not enough to adopt the tech; we have to teach it well. That starts with people. Organizations must proactively train and empower employees to use AI responsibly, ensuring a true partnership between human judgment and machine intelligence. Clear guidelines, open conversations, and ethical guardrails are non-negotiables.

What matters most? Critical thinking, emotional intelligence, ethical decision-making, and human creativity are skills companies must actively protect and encourage. As we integrate AI into workflows, we risk undervaluing the very human strengths that make innovation meaningful. Let’s be clear: AI is a powerful tool. Humanity is the advantage.

The Takin’ Care of Lady Business newsletter is for women who are done being underpaid, underestimated, and undervalued. It’s for women who are asking for what they want and getting it.

Bold. Unapologetically ambitious. Fiercely informed. Every issue dives into the real strategies to get your worth and then some.

TROUBLEMAKER SPOTLIGHT

Dr. Maya Shankar, Cognitive Scientist, Author, and Podcast Creator and Host

Maya Shankar has lived many lives. She’s been a violinist, Science Advisor to the Secretary General for the United Nations, Founder and Chair of the White House Behavioral Science Team under President Obama, and currently, Senior Director of Behavioral Economics at Google. She is also the creator, host, and executive producer of the podcast, A Slight Change of Plans, voted Apple’s Best Show of the Year in 2021. On her podcast and in her newly released book, The Other Side of Change, she asks, “What if we came to see the hardest moments in our lives not simply as something to endure, but as an opportunity to reimagine who we can be?”

What’s the worst career advice you’ve gotten?

By nature, I'm a very bubbly, smiley, and energetic person. When I was working in the White House, an older man made a comment that I was “starry-eyed and bushy-tailed, but let's see if she actually gets anything done.” While it wasn’t necessarily advice, he was saying that someone who had earnestness, optimism, or excitement about their job didn’t have technical chops. 

I remember thinking that this is a challenge many women face; they often have to deny their true personalities because there's a notion of what it means to be a professional. So I doubled down. I am a positive person, and I wasn’t going to dampen my personality to meet other people's expectations. My optimism does not belie my abilities; it’s not at the expense of practicality or realism. So I proved him wrong. I built my team, and President Obama signed an executive order.

What’s the best piece of non-obvious career advice you’ve gotten?

When I joined the White House, my boss told us to consider ourselves “policy entrepreneurs.” I loved the idea that we were all carrying an entrepreneurial label. Typically you don't think of “federal government” and “entrepreneur” as going together, but he believed that if we had that mindset, we would be more creative. We would find workarounds and learn not to take “no” for an answer. 

I didn't have a budget or mandate to build a behavioral science team. I had to build trust, align incentives, and form a coalition with advisors and investors who saw inherent value in what we were doing. I had to influence without authority. It built a certain kind of grit and creative spirit within us that helped us achieve our goals. In a very large, and sometimes dysfunctional, bureaucracy with lots of red tape, it was an empowering mindset. I’ve used it in every other venture since, whether it's building a behavioral economics team at Google, starting my podcast, or writing my book.

What was a heartbeat moment for you in your career?

In the beginning of 2020, my husband and I had been on a multi-year journey to start a family, and our surrogate was pregnant with our baby girl. Two days before the whole world shut down with COVID, she miscarried. We were beside ourselves with grief, and for someone who loves being in control, this experience was destabilizing. I felt very lonely, and with the pandemic, we didn't have our normal routines. It was then that I created my podcast, A Slight Change of Plans. It was a heartbeat moment. I wanted to tap into others’ wisdom and use insights from my scientific background to help us navigate change, with more equanimity and possibility. 

Starting that show changed my life. I was able to connect with incredible people all over the world who shared some of the hardest moments they've been through, but also how they ended up on the other side, intact and grateful. One of the things I learned was that in order to build a more resilient identity, you have to define yourself not by what you do, CEO, mom, or artist, but why. We have labels, but when a big change happens, it threatens those labels. It’s more sustainable to define yourself based on why you love the things you love. It serves as a compass toward next steps.

Who is one person you’d love to give flowers to from your career that influenced your journey? What advice or lesson did you learn from them?

In college, I met a man during one of the most difficult moments of my life. He worked in the dining hall, and every day, he greeted students with so much love, positivity, and joy. I admired the light he brought into the world. It made me realize what an incredible impact one human being can have. 

At the time, I was in a course about ethnographies of the African-American experience, and I interviewed him. I spent many hours hearing about his life, which was incredible. He made such an impression on me and showed me that we can be more conscious about the way we interact with others…we can make or ruin someone's day with a smile or a scowl. It made me more intentional about kindness and humanity. Kindness has to be the default working model for every person.

Where have you caused some good trouble in your career?

I’ve caused good trouble both in the White House and at Google because I built new, unorthodox behavioral economics teams. Their intent was to ensure that our best understanding of human behavior is integrated into the policies, programs, and products that we create. Anytime you introduce something new, there's going to be some degree of resistance.

But not all resistance comes from others; sometimes it comes from within. I’d never hosted a podcast or written a book before. In those cases, it was self-resistance. I had imposter syndrome moments where I wondered if I had what it took. I powered through, which allowed me to build confidence quickly. Even writing that first paragraph cracked open my imagination to what's possible. And now I’ve created something that makes me more proud than anything I've ever done in my life.

Want to nominate a “Troublemaker” you admire? You can do so here.

INSIDE TRACK

Leaders on the move

• Alison Wagonfeld has joined NVIDIA as Chief Marketing Officer, where she will lead marketing at the world’s most valuable company, now the first to hit a $5 trillion valuation. After nearly a decade shaping Google Cloud into the force it is today, this move speaks volumes about Alison’s impact and visionary leadership, especially at such a pivotal moment for AI.

• Felicia Yukich has been named Senior Vice President, Global Marketing at Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. She has spent two decades shaping the brand’s iconic identity across an expanding portfolio while defining what true hospitality looks like: personalization, emotional connection, and an unwavering commitment to excellence. Her ability to anticipate guest needs and turn insight into unforgettable experiences is unmatched.

• Justine Frostad has stepped into a new role as Chief Marketing Officer at Cognitiv. She has shaped and scaled Cognitiv over the past six years, building with intention alongside a remarkable team. Her leadership reflects a deep understanding that in an AI-powered world, human insight is still the differentiator.

• Amandine Ohayon has been named CEO of GIVENCHY, the first woman ever to lead the iconic fashion house. From Stella McCartney to this historic appointment, Amandine is redefining leadership in luxury. Only 14% of leadership roles in fashion are held by women, an astonishing stat for an industry centered on women. When women lead creatively, they bring more than design. They bring perspective.

• Olivia Oshry has been promoted to Chief Marketing Officer at OAAA. Olivia leads with passion, purpose, and a rare ability to unite an industry around a shared vision. As data, tech, and measurement reshape what’s possible in out-of-home, there’s no one better to evolve the narrative while honoring the roots of this powerful medium.

In her words: Olivia Oshry shared with FQ readers…

“Most of my career had been in digital advertising, and staying on that path would have been the more conventional choice. What gave me the confidence to say yes was the leadership, the scope of the opportunity, and the potential for real impact. That shift in perspective made it feel less like a leap of faith and more like a deliberate bet on people, potential, and progress.”

DEAR FQ

Your burning career questions answered

Alexa Comeau of The Female Quotient weighs in:

We’ll say it louder for the people in the back: you absolutely do not need to be the loudest in the room to be recognized for your work. 

You can make your impact visible without impacting your integrity in several ways. Before meetings, jot down your thoughts in writing. Then, when you are in the actual meeting, focus on the quality of what you share over the amount you share. One well-timed insight often lands better than constant commentary. 

After meetings, you can demonstrate that you listened and participated intentionally with a follow-up detailing concrete next steps or solutions. 

And finally, be sure to build your pack: connect with decision-makers one-on-one for more in-depth conversations. The goal isn't to be someone you’re not, but to create more channels where you and your contributions are seen.

P.S. Got a burning career question? Serve it up here to Dear FQ to score advice from a powerhouse leader in our network.

POLL THE PACK

People stay where they feel seen

Culture isn’t just about good vibes, it’s a retention strategy. 41% of professionals say their daily work experience improves when they feel heard and included.

But here’s the gap: only 1 in 3 employees say they got any recognition in the last week. And when acknowledgment is missing? They’re twice as likely to think about quitting in the next year. High-quality recognition makes a real difference. Gallup found that employees who received high-quality recognition are 45% less likely to leave their job within two years.

Recognition is a signal of how much a company values its people. And it starts with how we listen. According to psychologist Carl Rogers: “We think we listen, but very rarely do we listen with real understanding, true empathy. Yet listening, of this very special kind, is one of the most potent forces for change that I know.” Thoughtful listening makes employees feel valued and fosters a strong sense of community.

When employees feel heard, they feel safe. When they feel valued, they thrive. That’s what builds loyalty and great work.

Critical thinking has always been essential, and in the age of AI slop, it’s non-negotiable. Let’s stop the slop before it starts.

Xo,

The FQ

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