“Slop” Was the Word of the Year in 2025 – Here’s How Employers Can Get Smarter About AI Use in 2026
Merriam-Webster recently named “slop” as its 2025 Word of the Year, citing the explosion of low-quality, AI-created digital content that now clogs all of our inboxes and social feeds. While employers and business leaders should see this news as a warning, this development can also be an opportunity to set yourself apart. By combining the power of AI with a healthy dose of human judgment, you can capture the authenticity that people will crave more than ever in 2026 . As we ring in the new year, we’ll take a look at what slop is, talk about the problems it can cause, and provide you with some practical steps you can take to rid yourself of it. What “AI Slop” Looks Like at Work 2025 was the year that AI slop showed up in every aspect of your job. No doubt you have started to see an increase in: Generic emails and corporate communications that all start to sound the same (sounding official but not saying much of anything) Business content that’s repetitive, vague, and quite po...