41% of Workers Received Useless AI-Generated Content Last Month, at a Cost of $9M Per Year Per Company

My take: A study from Stanford and BetterUp surveyed 1,150 U.S. workers and found something many already suspected: 41% received "workslop" in the past month, AI-generated content that looks like work but does not advance any real task. Each incident takes an average of one hour and 56 minutes to sort out, adding up to more than $9 million in lost productivity per year for every 10,000 employees.

This is not an argument against AI. It is a signal that using it well requires judgment, not just speed. Generating content with AI and sending it without review does not save time: it shifts it to whoever receives it. The difference between those who win and lose with AI tools is not how much they use them, but how well they apply their judgment to the output.

If you are a business owner or manager, do you have a clear standard for what work can and cannot be delegated to AI without human review before sending it?