Employers are banning 'AI slop' to save staff from information overload

The influx of long-winded, machine-written content—dubbed 'slop'—has prompted firms like Polarsteps, Leapsome, and Clay to establish clear boundaries for internal documentation. A late 2025 survey from BetterUp and Stanford’s Social Media Lab found that 40% of US desk workers received such content from coworkers in a single month. For leadership, the issue is not the use of AI itself, but the degradation of critical thinking and the mounting time costs imposed on readers.

At the Berlin-based Leapsome, employees are now instructed that 'AI wrote it' is not an acceptable response when challenged on meaning. Similarly, Clay, a sales automation platform, implemented guidelines requiring staff to curate their output, framing conciseness as a professional courtesy. Sophie Alpert, a lead engineer at Clay, noted that her team’s policy was born from frustration after receiving five overtly AI-generated documents in one week. These policies generally encourage brainstorming with AI while mandating that the final product reflects the employee’s own reasoning and voice. Early feedback suggests a positive shift, with managers reporting a return to more human-centric, readable communication as workers realize that volume is no longer a substitute for clarity.