How to Use Work Slop for Good

AI-generated music has been everywhere – TikToks, Billboard charts, mainstream streaming platforms. As the conversation has exploded, people are asking big questions about what this means for creators, the creative process, and creativity as a whole. 

We recently got to talk to a very well-known musician and asked him what he thought about AI in the creative process. He didn’t hesitate: “Oh, I use it all the time.”

Now hang with us here. 

This is relevant to you even if you aren’t trying to get a million streams on Spotify.

Because what’s happening in music is a preview of what’s happening across all work.

A new creative divide is emerging – but it has nothing to do with talent.

AI is making it possible to generate a tangible concept — a melody, a design direction, a strategic outline, a landing page, financial models — in seconds. Sometimes multiple variations in seconds.

This is creating a new differentiation between two types of people:

1. People who use AI to brainstorm and prototype quickly. They generate multiple versions, explore alternatives, and get to clarity faster because they can see the idea instead of imagining it.

2. People who stop at the first idea. Not because it’s the best but because creating another one feels expensive, time-consuming, cognitively heavy, or hard to package, present, or explore.

The bottleneck isn’t talent.

It’s pace.

And the world is increasingly rewarding those who can think creatively and critically — something that becomes dramatically easier and more natural when you have more iterations of something to react to.

Work slop has entered the chat. (But that’s okay.)

Inside AIX, we talk a lot about work slop — the messy, imperfect drafts AI spits out when you prompt quickly and a little chaotically.

For us, work slop is not the problem or the enemy.

Stopping at the first draft is.

But let’s be honest: Stopping at the first draft has always been the cost, long before AI.

And for several reasons. For starters, your first idea is almost never your most creative one. It’s the most obvious one. It’s the idea everyone else would probably come up with too.

Creativity has always been about pushing beyond the easiest, most familiar pathways your brain offers you. The problem is that push takes time. And most people don’t have the time (or energy) to create three, five, or ten versions just to see what else might be possible.

But this is where work slop can come in. 

AI collapses the cost of iteration and removes the friction between idea → version → refinement. 

Not because AI is inherently creative, but because it gives you more opportunities to exercise your creativity.

Four productive ways to use work slop you can be proud of.

Here’s how our team routinely uses work slop on purpose — steal freely: 

1. Use work slop to accelerate strategic planning. Any time you’re scoping a project, outlining a strategy, or evaluating multiple paths forward, generate rough versions of the deliverables instantly. Use those messy drafts to spark clarity and direction, not as final answers.

2. Ship quick versions to help others react faster. People don’t give good feedback to abstract ideas. (Think about how many times you’ve tried to convey the idea you have in your head to someone else who just can’t “see it” the way you can. 🥹) People give better feedback to something they can see. People don’t give good feedback to abstract ideas. Create two or three work slop drafts and use them to guide decisions, alignment, and momentum.

3. Align with your team on when work slop is actually “good enough”. Not every task needs craftsmanship. Have an honest conversation with your team about what must be great… and what just needs to be done. 

4. Codify your expertise so your slop improves. The more you codify your own criteria, standards, and taste into prompts and playbooks, the higher the baseline quality your work slop becomes. Suddenly, your “slop” becomes rapid prototyping with your expertise baked in.

Everyone can benefit from the cost of iteration being nearly free. 

What are your thoughts on work slop? How do you use it? Reply and let us know. 

LINKS

For your reading list 📚

• While we’re on the topic, a new global survey shows listeners can no longer tell AI-generated music from human-made tracks, and most people are uneasy about it. Can you tell the difference?

• Want to add ChatGPT inside your group chat? OpenAI’s new group chats let up to 20 people collaborate while the AI listens, reacts, and chimes in when needed.

• Europe’s once-unshakable privacy and AI rules are being rolled back, delaying key AI Act provisions in a bid to revive growth.

That's all!

We'll see you again soon. Thoughts, feedback and questions are much appreciated - respond here or shoot us a note at [email protected].

Cheers,

🪄 The AI Exchange Team