An Anti-Slop Missive: Why 'Good Enough' in Bulk is a Brand’s Greatest Risk

“Guys I've have never been this scared before.”

That’s how our group chat started on the middle of a Friday. Insert the latest massive layoff news here.

“Anyone else grappling with the agentic dread?” 

It almost went without saying. It’s been 3.5 years since ChatGPT launched, and every industry and role is examining their value in a new light. 

An hour later, our chatter died out with no conclusions reached. I wasn’t one of the fearful ones, but the discussion did make me think “why.” The unknown is scary. Why am I not existentially scared? (Career-wise, that is.)

Pros & Cons: The Writing Trap

For the sake of brevity, let’s boil this down to what I’d argue is #1 use case in our field: writing. Yes, it’s time consuming. But it’s also vital for growing ideas.

AI is a world-class condenser but a mediocre creator. While it’s tempting to view it as a productivity miracle, it comes with a blandness tax that many teams are unknowingly paying.

• The Pro: AI is the ultimate blank page killer. For technical teams, it bridges the gap between depth/complexity and a readable paragraph. It plays into their strengths and helps round out what might be their weaknesses. For comms pros, it’s a research assistant that doesn’t mind your menial asks, capable of pulling industry research, stats, and examples in seconds.
• The Con: AI content is formulaic by design, and mindless by requisite. It can string together grammatically flawless sentences that say absolutely nothing. It lacks taste, subtext, and original POV - the three things that actually move audiences.
• The Risk: Treating Claude the LLM like Claude the marketing intern. Because AI makes writing look easy, it validates the dangerous delusion that anyone can do comms. It turns strategic storytelling into a commodity. If you aren’t careful, your brand starts sounding like a lukewarm bowl of corporate oatmeal.

AI can simulate intelligence, but it cannot simulate intent. If you aren’t reading every word it spits out with a skeptical eye, you aren’t editing - you’re just distributing slop. You’d be surprised at how many people do this. (Or maybe you wouldn’t.)

Doing It Right: You’re a Human - Prove It.

With writing as with many other facets of comms, the goal isn’t to outsource your thinking, it’s to use AI to accelerate your unique perspective. If you want to build authority, you can’t let the algorithm be the driver.

A few golden rules for your consideration:

1. Always Input Originality. AI is only as good as the raw ore you feed it. Don’t ask it to “write an article about X.” Instead, feed it your specific interview notes, your unique data and experiences, and your controversial take, then ask it to structure those specific thoughts.
2. Spend Your Value Tokens Wisely: Your value isn’t in typing, it’s in the strategy. Use AI to fill in the low-level blanks - summarizing meetings, condensing an interview, or drafting basic structure to follow - so you can spend your mental energy on the high-stakes nuances: the impactful takeaway, the emotional hook, and the technical accuracy.
3. The Preciousness Balance: Don’t be a perfectionist who refuses to use the tool, but don’t be a lazy sender who hits publish on the first draft. There’s a sweet spot where you use AI to iterate, then apply a human polish that ensures the piece actually has a soul.

The New Barrier to Entry

Back to the main point - here’s where I netted out. The real “agentic dread” isn’t just about jobs disappearing, it’s about the devaluation of expertise. The fear is that leadership will trade “great” for “good enough” because good enough is free and fast.

I’m an optimist, but we also have to address the widening skills gap. If AI can perform at the level of a junior staffer for a fraction of the cost, the entry-level rung of the career ladder is effectively on fire. Who will invest the time to train a human communicator when an algorithm is plug and play?

Survival in the age of AI slop requires us to be more than just wordsmiths. We have to be curators, strategists, and truth-checkers. Lean in on quality and authority. Sometimes, the most professional thing you can do is realize the AI draft is a dead end, cut your losses, and start over with a better prompt. Or better yet, a blank page and a human brain.