Slop avoidance may be one of the next big challenges

One of the next big challenges may be around slop avoidance.

The word now has a dictionary definition. Merriam-Webster made “slop” its 2025 Word of the Year. It defines it as “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence.”

While there’s an acceptable degree of slop to lubricate the conversation (probably no more than 10-15%), the reality is that we try to stay away from it like from a nagging salesperson.

Some of it has always been there. “Hope you’re well.” “Just circling back.” Nobody reads these lines for information, yet a message without them can feel abrupt. The problem starts when the share grows.

There is early data on where we are. In a survey by BetterUp Labs and the Stanford Social Media Lab, workers estimated that 15.4% of the work they receive is “workslop”. That is AI-generated content that looks polished but lacks substance. The average already sits at the top of the range above.

The cost lands on the reader. Respondents spent about 1 hour and 51 minutes dealing with each incident. Roughly 42% said they saw the sender as less trustworthy afterwards. The sender saves a few minutes. The receiver pays for them.

§Originality as craft

Originality will be praised like handmade Japanese stuff. Japan has a formal way of honouring this. Since 1950, under its Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties, the government has designated master craftspeople as holders of Important Intangible Cultural Properties. They are popularly known as Living National Treasures. The categories include ceramics, lacquerware and bamboo weaving, and each holder receives a special annual grant of two million yen.

Originality will be praised like handmade Japanese stuff.

Mass production made this work easier to see. Once a machine could stamp out a thousand plates, a plate shaped by one person’s hands became recognisable, and worth paying for. Text is going through the same shift. A competent page now takes seconds to generate, so the sentence only you could have written stands out.

§A small poll

I asked on LinkedIn what bothers people the most when dealing with slop. It was a small poll, 42 votes, so it is a signal rather than research:

• It signals low care: 10%
• It hides reality: 17%
• It wastes cognition time: 36%
• It breaks trust: 38%