Companies Are Being Torn Apart by AI "Workslop," Stanford Research Finds

"AI is supposed to revolutionize workforce productivity, but so far that hasn't been the case. One study from MIT found that a damning 95 percent of companies thatgambled on integrating the tech saw nomeaningful growth in revenue. Another study exploring one of its most hyped up applications, AI coding assistants, showed that programmers actually becameslower when they depended on the AI tools."

"Meanwhile, a slew of reports tell an increasingly familiar tale of companies firing their workers to replace them with AI, only to scramble to rehire humans once they realize the tech isn'tall it was made out to be. But why exactlyis AI falling short in the workplace? In theory, shouldn't a tool that can generate essays on the fly, spit out code, hold down a conversation on any topic, and take notes on your behalf be amazing for the economy?"

"Their conclusion? People are using it to churn out busywork that needs to be fixed by a human with common sense, undercutting claims that it can boost productivity in the labor force. "Employees are using AI tools to create low-effort, passable looking work that ends up creating more work for their coworkers," wrote Kate Niederhoffer, a social psychologist and vice president of BetterUp, in a writeup for Harvard Business Review with her colleagues. They define "workslop" as AI-generated work that "masquerades as good work, but lacks the substance to meaningfully advance a given task.""

A range of studies and reports show limited productivity gains from AI deployments. One study found 95 percent of companies that implemented AI saw no meaningful revenue growth. Research on AI coding assistants found programmers became slower when relying on those tools. Many firms briefly replaced workers with AI and then rehired humans after the technology underperformed. A survey of 1,150 full-time US employees across industries found widespread use of AI to produce low-effort outputs. Survey respondents labeled this output "workslop": AI-generated material that masquerades as good work but lacks substance and creates extra correction work for coworkers.

Read at Futurism