AI Slop Is Everywhere—How Small Businesses Can Use AI Without Creating Garbage

Tech & Tools
Written By Rick

Make the slop stop…

I feel like everyone is noticing it when scrolling through Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram lately, we are seeing more and more AI-generated nonsense. Fake animals doing impossible things. People floating while they ring doorbells. It's lame and my brain shuts it down not wanting to be bothered by pointless content.

I've been toying around with Sora 2 on iOS right now, and all I see is garbage. It's a cool proof of concept for the moment, but the thing is it's completely pointless. There's no substance, no reason for it to exist except that someone typed a prompt and hit generate.

This ease of creating anything and then just copying and pasting it is what we've ended up with, that's "AI slop".

The Thing That Gets Me About AI Slop

When a technology is new, I get it. We want to test it out. We're going to come up with some crazy stuff just to test capability and try different scenes. See what works, what doesn't work. That makes sense.

But when it becomes just a prompt, just a single line of thought, "give me this"—and then you copy and paste that and put it elsewhere? That's when it becomes a pointless dump. And it's really obviously turned people against AI.

Over half of people (53%) don't trust brands that hide AI use. Meanwhile…Well over half of marketers are using AI for social media, surveys put the adoption rate as high as 60% in 2025. Marketers are racing to add AI to any workflow, while more than half of consumers are saying no thanks.

Thing is, only 28% of consumers trust social media platforms to begin with. When you add undisclosed AI slop into that mix, you're pouring gasoline on a trust fire that's already burning.

The Spreadsheet Analogy: AI Is a Tool, Not Magic

The way I explain it to clients is think of AI like a spreadsheet. A spreadsheet helps an analyst spot trends in data, or track cash flow, or a just to keep everything organized.

But here's the thing…you need to know what you're doing in the first place. Is the data correct? What are you tracking? All of those nuances. The spreadsheet doesn't know your context; or any number of things that make your instance unique.

You can use the same tool with totally different outcomes depending on who's using it, what they know, and what they're trying to accomplish. AI works the same way, it amplifies your intent and expertise, whether that's thoughtful or lazy.

AI is along the same lines. Users apply the technology based on their intent.

For me, AI is a research tool. It's literally a research assistant where I have it pulling data for me and getting links. I do my own peer review, making sure that I've read it, I understand it, and then I'm comparing it to everything else I know. What am I seeing out there right now with small business owners? What are they looking for? What do they need?

It helps me daisy chain thoughts. It helps me go deeper on a subject. What I'm not doing is asking AI to write an article on whatever subject and then publishing it. That's not connection. Real connection happens when you dive into the subject yourself and meet your audience where they are. You can't do that if AI wrote every word.

What I Tell Business Owners Who Ask About AI

Business owners ask me about AI all the time. Here's the thing, I never jump straight into tools or features. My first question is always: "What's the end result you're actually going for."

Then: "Does AI even make sense here?"

Let's look at what existing tools you use to do whatever it may be. Then we can go down the line—okay, so you need something to check this, or you need something with a connector. Does Claude have it? Does ChatGPT have that? Is it made for that? Should you just use the Notion AI?

There are all different AIs, so it's great to have a use case for specifically what we're looking at. Not "I need AI because everyone's using AI." That's how you end up creating slop.

The Spectacular Failures: When AI Replaces Authenticity

Here's what happens when businesses ditch the humans and let AI take the wheel.

Spotify Wrapped 2024 launched an AI-generated podcast this year. And the result was? Users called it "boring," and "misses the important potential." One of Spotify's signature features—something people actually looked forward to—and they managed to make it worse by layering on pointless AI.

Coca-Cola's Christmas ads went all-in on AI this past year. The backlash? Immediate, and brutal. People called them "soulless" and, honestly, even "slop." This is Coca-Cola a brand built on emotional connection. And now they're trading all that in for what? Cheaper production? Bragging rights that they used AI? For a brand that built on nostalgia and real human moments? That's a odd choice.

LEGO posted AI-generated images on social media. Fans immediately spotted the artifacts—misshapen hands, weird proportions, that uncanny valley feeling. And suddenly a brand known for creativity and imagination was being questioned about whether they even cared about quality anymore.

Notice the pattern? Every single one of these failures happened when a brand used AI to replace something human. To cut corners. To avoid doing the harder, more authentic thing.

The Success Stories: When AI Augments Human Work

Let's see what AI can do when it's used to augment human ability to enhance their talent not replace them.

Nike brought AI into the mix to help design 3D-printed sneakers for 13 Olympians. But make no mistake, their designers were still front and center. The real craft didn't go anywhere; AI just gave them a new edge.

IKEA's Kreativ tool is another smart move. The AI scans your actual room and shows you how their furniture looks in it. No more guessing if that bookshelf will work in your space. AI does the grunt work, but humans still make the decision about what works and what feels right.

Then there's Erica, Bank of America's AI assistant. Erica takes care of all the routine stuff and hands things off to a human when things get out of its scope. It's not about swapping out people; it's freeing up actual humans for those moments that need empathy and judgement.

See the pattern? When AI actually works, it's helping people do their jobs better or fixing a real problem. Not just churning out content because it can.

The AI Model Collapse

What happens when AI models are being trained on AI-generated content? When that output is used to train the next generation. And the next. And the next.

A study in Nature showed that AI models literally collapse, after about five training iterations on AI-generated data. The quality degrades. The outputs become increasingly odd and disconnected from reality.

Just a couple of years ago, less than 10% of online articles were AI-generated. Now? Over half of new articles online are being churned out by AI according to SEO firm Graphite.

Do we want to really make the internet a hot mess of rehashed information? It's could be, once people start exploiting this in a really bad way that it's gonna head south. That's unfortunate, and I think we're pretty much headed for that.

Unless businesses start thinking differently about how they use these tools.

So What Do We Actually Do About This?

Look, I'm not anti-AI. Obviously—I use it every day. But I want you to see me as a straight shooter on this stuff. I get how complex AI can be, I know the tech side, and most importantly, I understand how it actually works in real businesses.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, literally said "human-created, human-endorsed, human-curated content all goes up in value dramatically" as more AI content appears online. The person leading AI development is saying real human work matters more than ever.

Here's what I ask clients before we talk AI:

First: What challenge are we actually solving? If they say 'well, everyone's using it', I know we need to rethink this. I want businesses to get specific about the problem they actually need to solve. Throwing AI into the mix for no reason just complicates things.

Second: Is AI leveling up our work, or are we just deleting humans? If AI makes us better at what we do, perfect. If it's just doing our job for us? Pass. You're losing the whole point of human-AI collaboration.

Third: Are we being transparent about using AI? Keeping your AI use secret? Red flag. It usually means you're leaning on AI instead of using it strategically and that's how you end up disconnected from your own work.

Fourth: Does it feel real? Show it to someone and ask if it sounds authentic. If their gut reaction is "this reads like AI," you missed the mark. Not because AI was involved, but because you let it drown out your own voice.

Fifth: Is a real human reviewing the final output? No matter what, you need a person double-checking what comes out. If you're just hitting 'generate' and 'publish,' you're creating forgettable filler.

The Authenticity Advantage in an AI-Flooded World

A lot of businesses are missing this: people actually care about authenticity. Over 90% say it matters.

With AI cranking out nonstop content, being genuinely human is the ace up your sleeve. That's how you stand out, not because AI is bad, but because most brands misuse it.

And check this out: 88% of consumers say authenticity matters when they buy. Not price. Not bells and whistles. Just being real. That's what counts.

We Need to Get Educated Now

The number one rule online at this point: Don't believe anything you read or see. Check it.

Look at trusted sources. Think of everything like a research paper. Where's the works cited page? Who actually said this? Did this really happen or is this AI slop?

For businesses? People need to know they can count on you for actual information and a human perspective. When everything else is garbage, being genuinely “you” is what makes you different.

When everything else is slop, being real is what matters.

The Bottom Line

The problem isn't AI. The problem is lazy execution. When you treat AI like it's magic instead of just another tool? That's when you screw up.

The floating doorbell people on Sora are going to die down because they're pointless. The fake animals on Facebook Reels will fade because they have no substance. The brands creating AI slop will lose trust because consumers can see right through it.

But the businesses that figure out how to use AI to augment their human expertise? To solve real problems? To maintain their authenticity while leveraging powerful tools?

That's who succeeds while staying human.

I'm big on spotting patterns. When I see a handful of dots, I start connecting them. Every new dot makes the picture clearer. Right now, we get to choose. One path leads to an internet full of slop and degrading quality. The other leads to businesses using AI thoughtfully to create better experiences and better outcomes.

Which direction you take your business? That's on you.

Let's Have a Real Conversation

Wondering how to use AI in your business without accidentally creating garbage? Reach out. I work with small business owners to figure out AI strategies that actually work for their unique needs.

Chasing trends doesn't matter. What matters is finding what actually works for you and your clients.

Get in touch. Let's have an actual conversation about your business, your goals, and whether AI even fits what you're trying to do.

Rick

Rick Montero is a digital strategist turned community builder, helping local businesses tell their authentic stories. He co-hosts the monthly "Innovators Roast" meetup for Long Island entrepreneurs and is passionate about building genuine connections in an increasingly digital world.

rickmontero.com
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