Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke warns of employee "slop grenades"

Lütke's comments mark a shift from his earlier position, when he told employees that using AI was "a baseline expectation" and that they should first prove they couldn't get what they wanted done with AI before asking for more resources. He now says that letting AI "go nuts" creates more headaches for the people receiving and reviewing the work.

The phenomenon has a name among researchers: "workslop," polished-looking AI output that needs revision. A BetterUp Labs and Stanford's Social Media Lab survey of 962 American full-time desk workers found that 52.7% reported sending workslop to colleagues, and that it was more common where organizations encouraged AI use. Beyond the time cost, the survey found relationships suffer — employees viewed colleagues who sent it as less competent and less friendly, and over a third of recipients wanted to avoid working with them in the future.

Duolingo CEO Luis Von Ahn has similarly backtracked on his "AI-first" push, telling Fast Company in May that AI demos well in writing but doesn't match the creativity of Duolingo's people at scale. The open question is whether the cleanup burden keeps growing as AI adoption spreads — the survey's estimate of 3.4 hours per month is already up from two hours the year before, suggesting the cost may compound unless companies set clearer norms about reviewing AI output.