Let’s name what’s actually happening — because once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

AI isn’t replacing people overnight. It’s replacing undifferentiated work — quietly, efficiently, and without warning. In a weak job market where hiring is cautious and layoffs are happening quietly, a new trend is taking over inside companies:

AI work slop.

AI work slop is the explosion of output that looks productive but creates no real value. It’s longer emails that say nothing new. Decks filled with charts but no judgment. Reports that summarize instead of decide. Meetings that feel busy but move nothing forward.

AI makes it incredibly easy to generate this kind of work — fast, polished, and empty. And because everyone can now produce it, output itself has become cheap.

And here’s the uncomfortable truth: when everyone can generate output, output stops being valuable. In this economy, value dilution is how people disappear.

AI work slop thrives in moments like this — when leadership is nervous, AI adoption is rushed, middle managers are pressured to “show progress,” and headcount decisions are already being modeled behind closed doors.

So teams flood the system with activity. Long emails with no point. AI-generated decks with no judgment. Meetings packed with updates but no accountability. Everyone is “doing the work,” but no one is actually changing outcomes.

This isn’t innovation. It’s performance theater.

And in a weak job market, performance theater doesn’t protect you. It makes you invisible.

Be honest with yourself.

If your emails are long, generic, and don’t move decisions forward, that’s AI slop. If your reports are polished but purely descriptive, that’s AI slop. If your decks look impressive but don’t force trade-offs, that’s AI slop. If your meetings have agendas but no owners, that’s AI slop.

But here’s the biggest red flag: people stop asking for your input.

The most dangerous employee in this economy isn’t the low performer. It’s the invisible one — the person producing lots of output that no one actually needs.

AI is not your replacement.
It’s your junior analyst.

Use it accordingly.

AI should be used for first drafts, not final answers. It’s excellent at structuring thoughts, summarizing raw information, organizing messy inputs, and generating options. It is not where your work should end.

Use AI to:

Do not use AI for:

Here’s the litmus test:

Your job is not to generate more work faster.
Your job is to add context, judgment, and consequence.

This is where you take your power back.

First, replace output with a point of view. Before you send anything, ask yourself: What does this mean? What decision does this support? What risk does this surface? If you can’t answer at least one, don’t send it. No POV equals no value.

Second, BLUF everything — Bottom Line Up Front. Start with the conclusion. BLUF: We should, should not, or need to decide X because Y. Executives don’t reward effort. They reward clarity.

Third, tie your work to power, not effort. Stop describing what you did and start describing what you changed. Replace “I worked on…” with “This unlocked…,” “This reduced risk by…,” or “This accelerated….” Impact language survives layoffs. Effort language does not.

Finally, create decision gravity. Every piece of work should end with a clear decision needed, a named owner, a timeline, and the cost of delay. If none of those exist, you’re participating in AI slop.

Middle managers are being squeezed from both sides — pressure up to prove AI progress, pressure down to protect teams, and no real authority to change systems. That’s why you’re seeing overstated wins, undersold risk, and quiet workload transfers.

Your edge in this environment is simple but powerful: be the person who makes risk legible and decisions clean — without lying. That’s who leadership trusts when cuts come.

AI isn’t the threat. Irrelevance is.

The people who win now are the ones who add context, challenge assumptions, force clarity, and elevate the work — not the ones generating more of it.

This week, Reuters reported that Amazon is preparing for another round of sweeping layoffs — quietly, deliberately, and without the kind of public spectacle we saw in earlier cuts.

This isn’t panic cutting. It’s precision cutting.

What stood out to me isn’t just that layoffs are happening — it’s how they’re happening. These reductions are coming after months of internal pressure around efficiency, productivity, and “doing more with less,” all while AI adoption narratives continue to accelerate. Translation: leadership already has the data. Decisions are already modeled. What’s being adjusted now is the org chart — not the strategy.

This is the new layoff playbook: fewer announcements, more recalibration. And in environments like this, people don’t lose jobs because they’re bad at their work. They lose jobs because their work became indistinguishable.

That’s exactly why the AI slop economy is so dangerous. When output floods the system and judgment disappears, leaders cut what they can’t clearly defend — fast. 🔗(Seattle Times via Reuters)

This economy is exposing who adds value — and who adds volume. You get to choose.

You’ve got the Edge. Now sharpen it.

Until next week,
— Deepali Vyas
Your Elite Recruiter
Doing the research so you don’t have to.

If this newsletter hit close to home, that’s not accidental.

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