The AI 'slop' backlash is good news for premium publishers
AI slop is damaging trust and wasting ad spend, but it also makes premium, human-led journalism more valuable.
The digital ecosystem has been filled with AI-generated content at a rate that many of us would never have anticipated. Synthetic output seems to be everywhere, with unstimulating articles ten-a-penny and over-processed images and videos at every turn. Social media in particular, seems to have become inundated with an endless stream of off-kilter content that adds little of value to the world.
But on the open web, AI slop has also become a huge problem very quickly. AI-generated news sites are popping up all the time and flooding the internet with hundreds of articles every day. Research has found that between mid-2024 and mid-2025, there was a 717% increase in the creation of AI-generated websites. This explosion of slop causes publisher revenues to be squeezed and advertisers to waste budget. All the while, consumers see their online experience degraded.
On the surface, it does feel like everyone loses, and premium publishers could be forgiven for despairing at the situation. But this cloud could very well come with a significant silver lining. It’s my view that the spread of AI slop may turn out to be one of the best things to happen to premium publishers in a long time.
Trust in AI-generated content is low
There’s a growing body of evidence that shows trust in AI-generated content is declining, especially when it comes to marketing content and that produced by social media creators. But this is spreading to news media too. There is a perception among consumers that generative AI is being widely used in news media, according to a report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, with more than half believing that it is ‘always’ or ‘often’ deployed in this industry sector. Only 26% of people questioned for the same study think that this use of generative AI will make their experience of interacting with news media better.
This backlash will favour publishers who invest in real reporting. When low-quality content is everywhere, high-quality content becomes scarce. This increases the value of quality. Human journalism, produced by people who take pride in their output, with thoughtful analysis and substantive verification processes, is brought into sharp contrast against a backdrop of slop. Now more than ever, publishers need to make sure they are completely transparent about whether they use AI in their content creation, and if so, how.
Advertisers, already conscious of how they may or may not use generative AI in their own creative processes, will be increasingly sensitive about being criticised for producing, or being seen alongside AI slop. The quality of editorial content reflects on the brand, and an advertiser that chooses to appear on a platform saturated with AI-generated noise is making a statement, whether it is intentional or not. Publishers that can steer clear of any association with AI slop will be well positioned to take advantage.
The AI slop backlash may take time to bear fruit
The benefits of the backlash won’t arrive overnight, though. This is a structural change that is likely to play out over the next five years or more. But as AI-generated content continues to scale, consumer scepticism is likely to grow, and platforms that allow AI slop to proliferate will bear reputational costs. Publishers that maintain their standards and invest in human creativity will see growing audiences and, over time, increasing advertiser demand.
The case for investing in human journalism has never been easier to make; human-produced content can’t be reliably replicated at scale by AI, and audiences will reward the sources that provide it. The big challenge for publishers is guiding advertisers to follow these audiences.
With many marketing teams still firmly focused on showing immediate return on ad spend, premium publishers need to step up their efforts to present their platforms as brand-building environments, not just performance ones. Brands like Lego and Mercedes have built decades of equity by treating advertising as a long-term investment in perception rather than a short-term conversion mechanism. Brands following that model today are making the better choice, and publishers need to help them reach this conclusion.
Brands that can see beyond the narrow confines of ROAS and basic attribution models will get a better view of the big picture and come to recognise that trust is built slowly rather than bought cheaply. And publishers that support marketers in achieving outcomes that are genuinely going to move the needle such as brand lift and attention, will have a much more persuasive argument if they can show their content is driving high levels of engagement.
AI slop will get worse before it gets better
These are difficult changes for marketers under pressure to show quarterly results, but they have to realise that the alternative of chasing cheap impressions on platforms crowded with synthetic content is a short-term approach with diminishing returns.
The AI content wave will keep growing, and AI slop will get worse before it gets better. As it does, the audience for serious, human journalism will become more defined, more loyal, and more valuable to premium publishers.
Ed Bristow, VP Business Development EMEA, Adlook
About: Adlook is a next-generation media technology company specialising in reaching audiences on the open internet and CTV – finding the right target groups where standard methods either under-deliver or outright fail.
Through innovative and groundbreaking Audience solutions, paired with cutting-edge Deep-Learning algorithms, Adlook restores programmatic advertising to its original vision: maximising efficiency and delivering real, effective media to our clients. Learn more at www.adlook.com