--- title: "Companies Are Realizing They’re Spending a Fortune on AI Just So Their Employees Can Generate Error-Riddled Slop, and Suddenly Cutting Back Budgets" description: "Top tech corporations are starting to pull back from their ambitious AI automation goals, as errors and workslop frustrate executives." date: "2026-10-18" modified: "2026-10-18" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins.md" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/enterprise-ai-spending-generate-slop-cutting-back" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Ethics" - "Finance" - "Future Society" --- # Companies Are Realizing They’re Spending a Fortune on AI Just So Their Employees Can Generate Error-Riddled Slop, and Suddenly Cutting Back Budgets ![A man in a business suit is shown screaming in frustration]() *Shutterstock / cheapbooks* Loads of stories have emerged over the past few months of corporate executives realizing their all-out drive to use AI was getting them [absolutely nowhere](). If anything, it was a net negative, as office workers set about wasting their budgets on [costly AI tokens]() to appear productive. Now, it seems even top tech industry players are cutting back, as they realize their workers are frittering away money and churning out reams of low-effort AI garbage. As [*Reuters* notes](), companies like Meta are scaling back ambitious plans to lay off staffers and replace them with AI agents. Microsoft seems to be doing the same, as [the *Guardian* reports](), after executive vice president Ryan Roslansky groused about the rise of low-quality workslop on his public-facing LinkedIn account. "AI slop isn't happening just on social networks… it's happening in the day to day of work," [Roslansky lamented](). "Someone sent me what was clearly an AI generated doc. I read it, realized it was all AI, had my AI summarize it and ended up with nothing that brought new thinking to the idea… This is a doom loop." As CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management Johnny Taylor Jr told the *Guardian*, corporate executives are increasingly feeling that, when it comes to AI, "we're driving the truck and building it at the same time, and that's a problem." "If we could all rewind... we would have introduced \[this\] in a more thoughtful, slow way," Taylor continued. As consumer-grade AI agents make headlines for [troubling capers](), practical AI at the enterprise level remains stunted. And though low-effort AI slop might be the most prevalent consequence of AI in the workplace, some side effects are much worse. As a [September survey]() by the firm Ernst and Young found, some 36 percent of senior AI executives at firms with over $1 billion in annual revenue have already experienced a catastrophic "AI incident" which ended up causing financial damage, operational disruptions, data loss, or brand damage. Put it all together, and it's not hard to see why corporations are starting to balk at the AI revolution — even those, like Microsoft, whose own success depends on selling the promise of AI to everybody else. **More on AI:** *[Other AI Companies Should Be Very Afraid of What Just Happened to Character.AI, According to Its Own Bankruptcy Documents]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()