Having done quite a bit of training on AI over the past few years, I feel like I need to start doing more training on when not to use AI. I am starting to see many examples of AI slop in public communications from school systems, companies, and regular people. Fortunately, I haven't seen this at my own workplace, but it's out there everywhere in the public domain. I won't embarrass anyone by showing examples.
Merriam-Webster's word of the year last year was "slop" and they weren't alone. The American Dialect Society picked it too. It's no wonder; mentions of "AI slop" across the internet increased ninefold from 2024 to 2025, and you can see it everywhere, including in things I see school systems releasing to the public. And while there's no shame in having AI help with communications, writing, etc., you want to guard against publishing AI slop in your outgoing communications.
How to recognize AI slop in school-system communications:
Communications that are longer than they need to be.
A strict adherence to parallel structure.
A lot of adjectives and adverbs (unwavering seems to be frequent).
More information than necessary.
Incorrect information.
Unfilled template placeholders like [PRINCIPAL NAME]
One more thing worth knowing: research shows that AI slop is essentially indistinguishable from quality content based on engagement metrics alone. Your community can't easily spot it, which is exactly why you need to.
But AI slop isn't only in public communications. Researchers at Stanford and BetterUp Labs have actually coined a term for it in workplace settings: "workslop" - low-quality AI-generated memos, reports, emails, and presentations that masquerade as real work. How many administrators, teachers, and others are producing workslop for meeting handouts, classroom handouts, etc.? Here are some ways to prevent this from happening:
AI shouldn't generate your writing; it should help you organize, refine, and fact-check what you wrote. You should be quarrying the stone, and AI should help you sculpt the final piece.
You should have several prompts refining a piece of writing with AI before you publish it if you're using AI as a writing tool.
Anything where someone is counting on your humanity should never be AI generated or even corrected. That needs to come straight from the heart. This is especially true for communications to employees where they need reassurance, acknowledgement, or affirmation.
You should direct AI to keep things very simple and direct if you are having it help you with your writing.
You should have a human proofread your document before you send it.
There's also a trust argument here worth considering. Consumer preference for AI-generated content dropped from 60% in 2023 to just 26% today. Your community increasingly values knowing a human wrote what they're reading. In a world flooded with AI slop, authenticity is becoming a competitive advantage and school systems that communicate like real humans have more of it.
References
Merriam-Webster. (2025). Word of the year: Slop. https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/word-of-the-year
American Dialect Society. (2025). 2025 word of the year: Slop. https://americandialect.org/2025-word-of-the-year-is-slop/
Visibrain. (2025). AI slop and the growing criticism of AI-generated content on social media. https://www.visibrain.com/blog/ai-slop-social-media
JMIR Medical Education. (2025). AI-generated slop in online biomedical science educational videos. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12634010/
Stanford Social Media Lab & BetterUp Labs. (2025). What is AI workslop? Research on costs and solutions. https://www.betterup.com/blog/hidden-costs-workslop
Harvard Business Review. (2025, September). AI-generated "workslop" is destroying productivity. https://hbr.org/2025/09/ai-generated-workslop-is-destroying-productivity
KO Insights. (2025). The authenticity premium: Why consumers are rejecting AI-generated content. https://www.koinsights.com/the-authenticity-premium-why-consumers-are-rejecting-ai-generated-content