Workslop refers to AI-generated work that appears polished but lacks real quality or substance. An estimated 40% of employees have received workslop, with each instance requiring roughly two hours of additional work to fix or clarify, making it a visible symptom of deeper team dynamic issues.

What did the BetterUp Labs research reveal about AI adoption and team relationships?

A 1,000-person study by BetterUp Labs and the Stanford Social Media Lab found that employees are increasingly turning to AI for input instead of their colleagues. This shift measurably lowers team effectiveness and raises retention risk, showing that AI adoption affects relationships, not just individual productivity.

What financial cost is linked to AI-driven employee displacement?

For a company of 10,000 employees, AI-driven displacement turnover and related departures are each estimated to cost approximately $27 million annually. These figures reflect the retention risk created when employees feel replaced by AI rather than supported by it in their daily work.

What percentage of desk workers report intending to go to AI over their teammates?

Twenty percent of desk workers report intentions to consult AI rather than their teammates for input or support. Separately, 49% say their teammates now approach them less often, since those colleagues are turning to AI first, reducing peer-to-peer engagement.

Why do frequent AI users tend to rate their team's expertise more highly?

Seventy-one percent of daily AI users rate their team as highly specialized, compared with 56% of infrequent users. This gap may reflect a false impression created by working alongside a tool that appears highly knowledgeable, rather than any actual change in teammates' expertise.

What operational problems occur when team coordination and trust decline?

When coordination and trust break down, the effects appear in daily operations as duplicated work, slower decision-making, and increased avoidance among team members. These outcomes highlight why preventing employee displacement by AI matters beyond culture, extending into measurable business performance.

What are signs that a team's coordination is declining?

Three signs include a drop in regular communication frequency below a couple of times per week, a disappearance of spontaneous knowledge-sharing such as unprompted check-ins, and increased reliance on AI for quick information or conversation instead of teammates.

Why are employees who trust AI the most considered a coordination risk?

Employees with high trust in AI are 2.2 times more likely to displace teammates than those with lower trust. This suggests that an organization's strongest AI adopters may also carry the greatest risk to team coordination if displacement isn't addressed proactively.

What factors most influence the quality of AI-assisted work?

AI proficiency and usage frequency account for less than 30% of what determines strong AI-assisted work. The remaining 70% depends on mindset and behavior, which are shaped by the conditions, norms, and rituals that leaders establish within their teams.

What actions can leaders take to reduce AI-driven displacement?

Leaders can build a learning culture that develops human skills alongside AI capabilities, set norms for reinvesting AI-saved time into people rather than only output, invest in relationship-building with the same seriousness as AI infrastructure, and rethink outdated assumptions about teamwork.

Blog > Artificial Intelligence > The cost of AI displacement: Why AI adoption is a team sport

The cost of AI displacement: Why AI adoption is a team sport

Alex Liebscher

September 14, 2026 - 6 MIN READ

Blog header: 'Research from BetterUp Labs and Stanford on the cost of AI displacement'

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Most organizations have gotten good at measuring individual AI adoption. They track literacy scores and usage rates.

What they haven’t measured is what’s happening between people.

Workslop — AI-generated work that looks polished but isn’t — is one signal of what’s happening with team dynamics. An estimated 40% of employees have received workslop, with each incident requiring about two hours of additional work.

But those numbers obscure something bigger: a relational fallout among teams.

A 1,000-person study from BetterUp Labs, in partnership with the Stanford Social Media Lab, found that employees increasingly go to AI for input instead of going to their colleagues. That shift measurably lowers team effectiveness and raises retention risks. For a 10,000-person company, AI-driven displacement turnover costs approximately $27 million a year.

The organizations pulling ahead aren't the ones with the highest AI adoption scores. They're the ones building conditions that get people to invest in AI and in each other at the same time.

What AI adoption metrics are missing

Adoption dashboards measure who's using AI and how often. They don't measure who your employees are turning when they need input or support: AI or the person at the next desk. That’s the gap this research set out to close, and it's a bigger problem than workslop alone.

AI adoption's blind spot: Teammates turning to AI instead of each other

Twenty percent of desk workers report intentions to go to AI over their teammates. Forty-nine percent say their own teammates now come to them less often, because those teammates are going to AI first.

“I’m able to concentrate on my own work, but also I value creating connections with others. So it can feel a bit lonelier as people don't need to rely on each other as much anymore.” — VP of Engineering

This pattern doesn't show up in any AI adoption metric leaders currently track.

Why frequent AI users misjudge their team's expertise

Frequent AI users believe the technology is sharpening expertise and improving work quality: 71% of daily AI users rate their team as highly specialized, compared with 56% of infrequent users. What's unclear is where that expertise actually sits. The gap may reflect a false impression created by working alongside a tool that seems to know everything, rather than any real change in what teammates know.

Why AI displacement is a business problem, not just a culture problem

Employees who go to teammates instead of AI are 7.3 times more likely to report strong team coordination and 9.5 times more likely to report strong team trust than employees who go to AI over their teammates.

The link between team trust and coordination

When coordination breaks down and trust erodes, the costs show up in day-to-day operations: duplicated work, slower decisions, and avoidance. This highlights the importance of ensuring employees are not being displaced and experiencing this breakdown in coordination.

What displaced departures cost your organization

Workers who feel displaced by AI are 3.3 times less likely to want to work with their team again. They’re also more likely to be looking for a new job, which eventually translates to attrition. For a 10,000-person company, displaced departures could cost an organization $27 million a year.

3 signs your team's coordination is dropping

Communication frequency drops. Regular contact, at least a couple of times a week, is the protective baseline for a team. If the typical frequency drops, it's worth investigating why before it shows up in the numbers above.
Spontaneous knowledge-sharing disappears. Watch for "let me loop you in" disappearing: fewer check-ins, less unprompted knowledge-sharing. Our data suggests exactly where AI is replacing teammate connections. Eighty-three percent of workers say AI takes the place of a teammate when they need quick information, and 37% say the same for a conversation or check-in.
Your most AI-trusting employees are the most at risk. Employees who trust AI the most are statistically more likely to displace teammates: 2.2 times more likely if they're highly trusting of AI. Your strongest AI adopters may also be your biggest coordination risk.

How leaders can close the AI displacement gap

AI proficiency and usage frequency explain less than 30% of who produces strong AI-assisted work. The other 70% comes down to mindset and behavior, and those are set by the conditions and rituals leaders put in place. Leaders can strengthen both by:

Building a learning culture that develops human skills alongside AI capabilities
Setting norms for reinvesting time saved by AI back into people, not just output
Investing in relationship building with the same seriousness as AI infrastructure
Rethinking outdated mental models for what teamwork requires

Learn how to transform team relationships to harness true AI performance. Talk to BetterUp

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