Accordingly, a new survey finds three in four employees are burnt out from dealing with the fallout of AI-created “workslop.”
Account-based everything
This term was brilliantly detailed in a recent Harvard Business Review article. BetterUp Labs is running this survey on an ongoing basis. To date, it has fielded over 1,150 full-time U.S. employees’ responses. Those findings paint a picture indicating that 40% of respondents experienced workslop in the previous month. Even more worrisome is its impact on productivity and workflow.
Workslop is characterized as “unhelpful, incomplete, or missing crucial context,” according to researchers at BetterUp Labs. AI tools can often spit out confusing, nonsensical or superficial products. This only makes it more burdensome for colleagues to analyze, fix, or entirely re-do the work. The researchers emphasize that the “insidious effect of workslop is that it shifts the burden of the work downstream,” requiring recipients to invest time and resources to make sense of the flawed outputs.
As AI tools continue to spread rapidly through our workplaces—often without the involvement of HR specialists—the researchers hope organizations will take a more intentional and careful approach. They recommend that organizations “model thoughtful AI use that has purpose and intention.” Define the line on what practices and norms are acceptable in AI-generated content. This will go a long way in reducing the dangers posed by workslop.
This influential survey of U.S. Programming and other creative organizations are furiously working towards how to use AI to be more efficient, and still be great at the same time. In the face of this, the urgency for clear, comprehensive guidelines surrounding AI use couldn’t be more evident. The researchers urge companies to “set clear guardrails for your teams around norms and acceptable use” to ensure that AI serves as an asset rather than a hindrance.
As AI technology continues to evolve at a breakneck pace, recognizing its limitations and potential pitfalls becomes imperative. Employees continue to sound the alarm on workslop. Organizations should remain vigilant and be aware of these technologies as they are increasingly integrated into everyday workflows.
