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Despite the now widespread use of AI in workplaces, workers aren’t actually becoming more productive, according to a new survey led by Stanford Social Media Lab and BetterUp Labs. The report finds that while employees are using modern AI tools more than ever, they’re using them to create subpar work. The new report calls the phenomenon “workslop, which it defines as “AI-generated work content that masquerades as good work, but lacks the substance to meaningfully advance a given task.” In other words, it’s thoughtless, sloppy work that someone will eventually have to clean up. The problem is widespread up and down the corporate ladder. Per the report, 40% of employees out of 1,150 surveyed said they’ve received workslop in the past month, and that about 15.4% of the work they receive overall meets the criteria for workslop. Most commonly, workslop is shared between peers (40% of the time), but it doesn’t stop there: 18% of the time, workslop gets sent to managers. And it also happens in reverse: 16% of the time, managers (or even more senior leaders) send workslop out to their teams. The report says that two industries have been impacted the most: professional services and technology. But across all industries, the phenomenon is more than a minor annoyance. Theres an emotional cost to receiving workslop. More than half of respondents (53%) said they feel annoyed, 38% confused, and 22% are downright offended when they receive workslop. Receiving low-effort work from employees may also change the way coworkers view said employees. “Approximately half of the people we surveyed viewed colleagues who sent workslop as less creative, capable, and reliable than they did before receiving the output,” the report said. Likewise, 42% of those surveyed said workers who generate subpar AI-generated work are less trustworthy; 37% even view them as less intelligent. In fact, 34% of respondents said that when they receive workslop they notify other teammates or their manager. Nearly a third (32%) said they are less likely to want to work with the workslop producer again. While AI might make it easier to speed through work, using it carelessly may erode trust among coworkers just as fast.
Category:
E-Commerce
Lets be honest: No matter your perspective, taking in news these days tends to be a pretty tiring experience. At best, its a bit boring. At worst, its anxiety-inducing and mind-melting, often leaving you with more questions than answers. This week, a whole new kind of news app is officially breaking cover. And, I knowyadda yadda yadda, right? Another earth-shattering news app with more of the same as every other app before it? I had the same thought when I first came across this. Then I started to actually use it. And man alive, lemme tell ya: This is not like any other news app Ive ever encountered. Its fresh, its interesting, and its absolutely different. And it introduces some truly remarkable high-tech twists that turn news consumption into a uniquely personal and genuinely interactive experience. This tip originally appeared in the free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. Get the next issue in your inbox and get ready to discover all sorts of awesome tech treasures! A news app like no other First things first: While the app were about to go over is about as new as can be, it actually comes from a fairly familiar source. The three guys behind it were among the early developers on Googles acclaimed NotebookLM toolone of the first legitimately useful standouts of our current (all-too-often overhyped) AI era. NotebookLM, if you arent familiar, has won over oodles of fans with its clever approach to using AI in a limited, situation-specific way: It analyzes only the documents, web pages, and other info you feed into it and then lets you interact with that info in all sorts of engaging ways. One of those ways is having the system turn your info into an on-demand podcastan undeniably intriguing new option for listening to info of your choosing in a conversational, audio-based form. Thats the same basic philosophy behind Huxe, a cross-platform, audio-centric news app thats officially available for anyone to use today. In short, Huxe lets you specify your areas of interestanything from technology and productivity to business, health, food, sports, books, and (if you must) current eventsalong with optionally adding in your location for local news, traffic, and weather updates and, if you really wanna get wild, connecting it to your calendar and/or email so it can include updates from those fronts as well. Whatever you pick, each morning Huxe uses your preferences to serve up a single daily news brief made specifically for you. Its computer-generated, of course, but it sounds like two human hosts performing a podcast solely for your benefitwith a focus on the areas you asked for and as much personalization as youve opted to include. Huxe serves up a single, personalized news brief every morningbut that’s not all. Now, heres where it gets really surreal: While your podcast is playing, you can tap a microphone icon and interrupt itto ask questions about something, ask for clarifications or more info about a story, or ask anything else that comes to your mind as youre listening. Whenever you speak, the hosts stop speaking and listen; then, within a matter of seconds, they respond to your request as if they are actually chatting with you. After theyre done addressing your inquiry, they segue naturally back into the rest of your predetermined program. Here, for instance, I interrupted a segment about some incoming Google Play Store changes to ask whether the new features would be available globally or only in the U.S., for nowwhich hadnt initially been mentioned in my podcast. (I turned on live captioning to capture the apps spoken response.) Your Huxe podcasts will stop and listen whenever you ask a question, then respond before continuing on with the program. In addition to the standard morning briefings, you can open up Huxe anytime to get an on-the-spot custom podcast update, and you can tune in to a variety of live stations with varying themes related to your interests. You can even create your own custom live stations or DeepCasts to get instant podcasts on practically any topic imaginable, anytime. The app gives you a sprawling selection of custom and on-demand podcast options. And all of that is still just scratching the surface. Now, two unavoidable reality checks: First, could the systems involved here get facts wrongas AI systems so frequently do? Its certainly possible ad arguably even likely. AI has thus far proven itself to be extremely fallible and untrustworthy, and thats in large part just par for the course with the way the underlying technology works. In my relatively limited experience with Huxe so far, Ive yet to run into any obvious examples of errant information. But that doesnt mean it wont happen. And its something Id strongly suggest anyone using an app like this keep a close eye on and keep top of mind. Second, is it slightly unsettling how good this is and how human it seems? Yupsure is. But is it insanely impressive at the same time and something I could absolutely see being appreciated by an awful lot of people? Youd better believe it. Whether you end up using the app often or just playing around with it for a while, its one seriously cool and impossibly interesting tool thats well worth your while to investigate. And hey, who knows? You might just end up loving it. Huxe is available for both Android and iOS. There isnt a web version (yet), but itll work on essentially any phone in front of you. Its free to use for the moment, without any asterisks, and Ive yet to encounter any kind of advertising. Ive gotta think therell eventually be ads integrated into the shows and/or premium subscriptions of some sort offered, but the company hasnt spoken to any such specifics so far. The app does require you to sign inwith either a Google account or an email addressbut no other form of personal info is required. Huxes privacy policy says the service may use your voice data for improving its system but never uses any personal calendar or email info for training without an explicit opt-in. Treat yourself to all sorts of brain-boosting goodies like this with the free Cool Tools newsletterstarting with an instant introduction to an incredible audio app thatll tune up your days in truly delightful ways.
Category:
E-Commerce
Of all the things weve used ChatGPT for in 2025, one of the most specific was: What should we drink on a Dalston dive bar expedition on a Thursday night with cooler, younger clients, to avoid a hanxiety-filled Friday, with a board presentation to write? The answer? Neat Patrón or margaritas, with tips on hydration and sleep. It actually worked. We had a great night, and woke up (relatively) clear-headed. This is what millions of people are doing every day: trading Google rabbit holes for AI when seeking product advice, personal hacks, and brand choices. ChatGPT isnt just an influencing preference. It increasingly is the preference engine. KILL THE FUNNEL For decades, brand and marketing strategy has operated around a simple concept: the funnel. First, you capture awareness. Then, cultivate interest. After that, you guide consumers toward decision, and finally, conversion. Clean, rational, linear. We all knew it was flawed but there was a directional truth to it that made it very useful to plan around. But in 2025, the time has come to kill the funnel. We set out to write a paper on what to replace it with, drawing on extensive research, our client work, and input from our friends at Reddit. Here are the highlights so far. HOW TO REPLACE THE FUNNEL Consumers arent moving predictably through stages. Theyre outsourcing research and shortlisting to machines. Theyre skipping steps entirely. Just six months ago wed have called BS on this proclamation. But today, this is very much happening: Roughly 50% of shoppers in the U.S., UK, Canada, and Australia use GenAI for e-commerce tasks Over 60% of U.S. Gen Z and millennials use GenAI to help manage their finances Leading venture capitalists and tech leaders are speculating about a future where AI superagents dissolve the role of apps and traditional user interfaces Of course the rate of change varies widely by purchase complexity, with an incredible 47% of travel shoppers feeling confident when using AI compared to 17% knowingly using it in grocery. But the overall picture is of a collapsing customer journey. That means the strategies designed to move people through it will collapse with it. The implication is profound. Brand building now has two audiences: Humans and machines. 2 MODES OF MODERN BRAND-BUILDING To succeed in this new reality, marketers must operate in two parallel modes: Priming and proving. Priming is about creating long-term predisposition with humans. Building familiarity, cultural relevance, and emotional affinity regardless of whether theyre currently in market. Proving is about surfacing the evidence that both humans and deep learning algorithms trust. Delivering the information and signals that win in a machine-mediated, AI-driven decision moment. HOW TO PRIME Priming creates familiarity and favorability in human memories, to become the default choice in someones mind before they need to choose. That means: Emotional storytelling that travels Memorable brand codes and consistent assets Participation in culture, including TikTok trends, Discord, or headline-making activations Community-led content people want to remix, share, and live with Experiences that build brand belief through action, not just ads Orientating brand health measurement around equity metrics that track progress on how well youre influencing human perceptions and memory structures In other words, best-practice, 21st century upper funnel marketing. But less focused on interruption at scale and more on a coherent ecosystem of authentic, useful, and entertaining content/experiences. HOW TO PROVE Proving is where humans and machines overlap. It’s what shows up when someone (or something) is checking whether you’re credible, relevant, and worth recommending. That means: High-quality, up-to-date product and brand information across the web Clear alignment between brand promise and experience Independent reviews and endorsements High-authority media mentions and expert takes Fast correction of misinformation and inconsistent signals Orientating brand health measurement around entity metrics that track progress on how well youre influencing large language model (LLM) representation and retrieval The proving layer is what determines whether AI assistants recommend your brand or skip it entirely. THE NEW CUSTOMER JOURNEY IS A FLYWHEEL Heres the shift: Where the funnel assumes a one-way path, priming and proving are a constant loop. This is a flywheel, where strong priming makes AI recommendations feel more trusted, while great proving strengthens memories and impressions with humans and machines alike. Viewing our Patron/hangxiety experience through this model, wed already seen the Nothing to Hide platform (priming). The subsequent experience of the LLM recognizing bartender advocacy (proving) on the same topic likely influenced our momentous drinks decision. This is what brand leadership looks like in the AI era: not guiding people down a funnel, but building a self-reinforcing system where emotional equity and informational credibility compound. FINAL THOUGHT: HELPING HUMANS > HACKING SYSTEMS The brands that win in this new era of customer decision making wont do it by hacking a single channel or reverse-engineering one LLM’s ranking logic. The innovation rate is so fast that no one really knows how this will play out. What feels like a hack today may be obsolete tomorrow. But there are clues. Nick Turley, head of ChatGPT said recently that while they are still really in the MS-DOS phase, ultimately the expeience is being optimized to help people thrive rather than for a specific engagement or time metric. So it follows that the brands they favor will do the same, through being as useful, trustworthy, and interesting as possible. Great brand building has always been about these qualities. But we cannot underestimate the paradigm shift caused by them being codetermined by hyperintelligent machines. The flywheel previously known as a funnel is already spinning. CMOs should jump on it now, or watch competitors generate exponential growth while they wait. Neil Barrie is global CEO and cofounder of 21st Century Brand. Dan Hauck is executive strategy director and partner of 21st Century Brand.
Category:
E-Commerce
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