In this week's issue: Workslop is everywhere—lazy thinking producing lazy AI outputs. But an AI Creative Brief can change all that. Learn how to build one that drives better results.

Hey there, amazing Reader:

I've worn a lot of hats over my decades-long career, most of them in hospitality and journalism. For nearly a decade, I was an editor at TravelAge West, a regional travel publication for travel agents. Throughout that time, I read many brilliant pieces of writing. And some truly terrible writing. Lately, there's been a lot of the latter.

Researchers at Stanford have coined a new term for this bad AI writing: Workslop. Writing that "masquerades as productivity" but "lacks real substance." For me, reading AI-generated workslop is genuinely painful. It's like chewing on a sour lemon. I want to pull out my trusty red pen and mark it up until my hand cramps.

But here's the thing: bad outputs come from lazy writing. The problem isn't the AI—it's the effort (or lack thereof) going into how we interact with and instruct AI.

When you actually sit down and give AI a little institutional knowledge, provide a demo of your brand voice, and define your goals? When you think about creating outputs that really help? Everything changes.

This week's article walks you through building an AI Creative Brief that demands better thinking from you and produces better results from AI

Warmly,
​Monica Poling

PS: I'm taking bets now. Who else thinks workslop will earn a place on Merriam Webster's Word of the Year list? Hit reply and let me know!

How to Write an AI Creative Brief

AI doesn’t automatically have access to what makes you different. Without it, AI pulls from the broadest, most generic datasets available. And that means, unless told otherwise, it will produce broad, generic outputs.

But when you give AI your your real behind-the-scenes strategies, your authentic voice, your business goals, your results suddenly get much better. Learn how to build an AI Creative Brief that helps generate AI outputs that move the needle.

The AI Six

AI headlines and what's shifting for creative leaders this week

🟢 Envato’s “State of AI in Creative Work 2026” Report Shows Adoption High, Confidence Low — Half of creatives say they increased AI use recently, yet nearly 70% feel under-prepared. "AI adoption is moving faster than AI literacy,” said Hichame Assi, CEO at Envato. This is an important learning for trade orgs, as the gap points directly to the need for more AI training, strategy, and leadership. (GlobeNewswire, Nov 11)

🟣 NYT vs. OpenAI Escalates Over Data Access — The New York Times Company is pushing for access to 20 million chat logs in its case against OpenAI, saying OpenAI violated its paywall policies. This highlights the risks around entering any private or personal data in your chats. They are (or at least can be) served up - on demand. (Reuters, Nov 12)

🟢 OpenAI Launches GPT-5.1 With “Instant” & “Thinking” Modes — After the much-publicized (with mixed reviews) launch of ChatGPT 5.0 in summer, OpenAI took a quieter approach to the rollout of its newest model. ChatGPT 5.1 offers two modes: a faster (Instant) mode and a more context rich (Thinking) mode. OpenAI calls its latest release "a smarter, more conversational" model. (OpenAI, Nov 12)

🟣 Visworld Launches All-in-One Creative AI Suite — Another day, another "comprehensive" creative suite designed for beginners. This one features some interesting tools (like anime drawings to video and a talking image generator) that could make workflows easier, but could also threaten the demand for true creative visionaries, while adding little actual creativity. (AccessNewswire, Nov 13)

🟢 News Ticker on Steroids: IBM + Ultimate Fighting Championship Plug AI Into Live Sports Insights — Real-time “In-Fight Insights” is set to debut Nov. 14, elevating elevate event storytelling with live sporting updates, including identifying "key fight moments," such as record-setting strike totals, streaks and other significant milestones as they happen. This could signal a new chapter in sportscasting and event play by plays.. (PR Newswire, Nov 14)

🟣 ChatGPT Dependency: How To Stop Being Reliant On It — A new article from Mashable warns of over-reliance on AI chatbots and offers steps to restore human creativity and judgement. For creative leaders, the real threat isn’t AI—it’s losing our edge by outsourcing too much of ourselves to the chatbot. (Mashable, Nov 2025)

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