The Unchecked Draft

The lines under "How it sounds" are typical phrasing we wrote, not quotes from clients or interviews.

How it sounds

• “This report reads well, but half the numbers are wrong.”
• “I sent it back three times.”
• “AI wrote it, so I figured it was fine.”

What it looks like

AI-made work moves between people without anyone checking it. Polished drafts carry wrong facts, missing context or confident filler. The person who receives it spends time fixing it and starts trusting the sender's work a little less.

Why it happens

Companies push people to use AI without setting norms for checking it. Speed shows up where everyone can see it, and the fixing happens out of sight on someone else's desk. The researchers who named this "workslop" point to "indiscriminate organizational mandates" and too little guidance.

What it costs

• In a BetterUp Labs and Stanford Social Media Lab survey of 1,150 US full-time desk workers (published in Harvard Business Review, Sep 22, 2025), 40% had received workslop in the past month. Each incident took an average of 1 hour 56 minutes to deal with, which the researchers estimate at $186 a month per affected employee, based on respondents' own time and salary estimates.
• As an illustration for a 50-person company: 50 × 40% = 20 affected people, and 20 × $186 × 12 months = $44,640 a year. Applying a national survey to one company is our assumption, BetterUp sells coaching, and the figures are self-reported.
• In the 2025 DORA report, 30% of technology professionals reported little or no trust in AI-generated code.

First move

Set one rule: whoever sends AI-assisted work has checked it and can explain it. For anything going to a customer, name the person who reviews it before it goes.

The fifteen patterns, with what each one costs and a first move, are in The AI anti-pattern field guide.

An AI strategy decides who owns the work, which tools stay, and what changes first.

AI readiness assessmentHow we work