Technology
Merriam-Webster Named 'Slop' Word of the Year; Review Every AI Draft
Edward Ilin10 min read
"Slop" is Merriam-Webster's 2025 Word of the Year, an official label for the flood of low-quality digital content that AI produces. For agency content leads, it hands clients a ready-made verdict for work that feels generic or synthetic. Consumer surveys show AI-heavy marketing can erode trust, so human sign-off now protects client relationships.
Your clients now have a word for bad AI content. That word is "slop." Merriam-Webster named it the 2025 word of the Year. You can answer to that word before they say it. You already ship more content than your team can comfortably review, and every extra deliverable raises the odds that something weak slips through.
Why Clients Will Use "Slop" on Your Work: Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year Is Now Their Vocabulary
What changed: a vague unease now has an official name
Until recently, a client who disliked a flat, generic post had to fumble for words. They said it felt "off" or "not us." That gap gave you room to argue and revise, and it just closed.
According to mezha.net, Merriam-Webster named "slop" its 2025 Word of the Year, tying it to low-quality AI-generated digital content. A recent Entrepreneur piece makes the same point: the word names the thing brands should avoid being tied to.
Feedback gets shorter and harsher once a label exists. "This feels like slop" ends a review round in one sentence.
- Their own audiences use the same word, so internal approvers will too.
Why it lands on agency desks first
Agencies carry the volume. A brand's in-house team might publish a few pieces a week. You publish across several clients, several channels, and several formats. More output means more surface area for a bad piece.
The audience your clients are paying to reach is already tired of it. A Gartner survey of US consumers found that 65% believe brands are producing too much AI-generated content, and 57% say it has made them less trusting of brand messaging overall. Harris Poll research with the 4As and Infillion, reported by Marketing Brew, found that 63% of respondents would be less likely to purchase from a brand that uses AI-generated ads.
That makes this a client-retention issue, not a style debate.
My judgment: the risk is not the tool, it is the unowned output
Avoiding AI is not the answer. Most agency leads are overextended, and AI is how you keep pace with the volume clients expect. Avoiding AI means falling behind that volume.
the real failure is shipping work that no one on your team would defend line by line. Slop is what happens when output goes straight from generation to publication with nobody asking whether it says anything.
Slop reads fine and says nothing. No specific detail a client could verify. No point of view. Copy that could belong to any brand in the category.
The Entrepreneur author describes a breakout-room test that shows the difference. Two AI-made videos, an ad with a glowing juice bottle and four flavor names, and an avatar reciting 18 years of consulting experience, left the audience cold. One attendee said it "had no emotional impact on me at all." A real franchisee's story made every hand go up.
Content with a real person, a real event, and a clear arc earns belief. content that only exists to fill a slot does not.
Step 1 this week: audit your last 10 deliverables
Pull your last 10 deliverables across clients. Read them the way a skeptical client or a distracted follower would. Flag every piece where a fair reviewer could say "slop."
Does the piece contain a specific detail only this client could provide? Could you swap in a competitor's name and leave the rest unchanged? Would anyone on your team repeat the main claim out loud?
- Mark each piece as keep, rework, or retire.
- Note which formats produce the most flags. That shows where your process leaks.
Step 2 this week: add a one-question human gate
One question decides whether a piece leaves your building. Before anything goes out, one person asks: would we sign our name to this?
Keep it to one question on purpose. A long checklist gets skipped when the queue is full. A single question takes seconds and still catches the generic piece that slid past three earlier reviews.
If the answer is no, the piece goes back with a specific fix: add a real customer detail, a concrete example, or a point of view. Do not send it back with a note that says "make it better."
- Name one accountable person per client account for the final yes.
- Log the pieces that fail. Patterns show up fast.
Step 3 this week: tell clients how you use AI
Send each client a two-sentence note. The first sentence says where your team uses AI, such as first drafts or format adaptation. The second says where a person signs off, such as final copy and anything with claims or customer stories.
This does two jobs. It removes the awkward moment when a client suspects AI and wonders whether you hid it. It also positions your review step as part of what they pay for, not a cost you quietly absorbed.
The Entrepreneur piece points out the trap on both sides: label synthetic content and viewers trust it less, hide it and you look worse when they find out. A short, honest process note avoids that bind by putting the human judgment up front.
'Slop' Was the Word of the Year. Don't Let It Describe Your Brand.: Your Questions Answered
What does "slop" actually mean, and why does it matter to my agency?
It is not a technical term. It is a verdict, and anyone can apply it to a post that reads smoothly and says nothing.
It matters most to agencies because you ship across more clients, channels, and formats than any in-house team.
Does this mean I should stop using AI for client work?
No. The risk is output nobody on your team would defend line by line.
How do I audit my recent work for slop without losing a whole day?
Ten pieces is small enough to finish in an afternoon and big enough to show you something real. Follow the criteria in Step 1, and if most flags land on one format, fix that format first instead of rewriting everything.
What is the one-question human gate, and how do I make it stick?
A single question takes seconds, so it survives a full queue (see Step 2). To make it stick, name one accountable person per client account and log every failure, sending each back with a specific fix.
What should I tell clients about how we use AI?
Send the two-sentence note from Step 3. Coverage of the Word of the Year, including linkedin.com, treats brand safety and media quality as planning concerns heading into 2026, so clients are paying attention to how their content gets made.
Final Thoughts on 'Slop' Being the Word of the Year: Don't Let It Describe Your Brand
Slop reads fine and says nothing. Audit your last 10 deliverables, add a single human gate, and send each client a two-sentence note.
Brainpercent learns a brand's voice once, so drafts start closer to the client's tone and your review time goes to judgment, not rewrites. Run one client's next batch through it.
Would we sign our name to this?
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