Featured Post from University of Delaware

AI gives rise to the cut and paste employee

Mar 10, 2026

4 min

Saleem Mistry
CaptionResizeWrap TextRemove


Although AI tools can improve productivity, recent studies show that they too often intensify workloads instead of reducing them, in many cases even leading to cognitive overload and burnout. The University of Delaware's Saleem Mistry says this is creating employees who work harder, not smarter.


Mistry, an associate professor of management in UD's Lerner College of Business & Economics, says his research confirms findings found in this Feb. 9, 2026 article in the Harvard Business Review. 


Driven by the misconception that AI is an accurate search engine rather than a predictive text tool, these "cut and paste" employees are using the applications to pump out deliverables in seconds just to keep up with increasing workloads.


Mistry notes that this prioritization of speed over accuracy is happening at every level of the organization:


• Junior staff: Blast out polished looking but unverified drafts.


• Managers: Outsource their ability to deeply learn and critically think in order to summarize data, letting their analytical skills atrophy.


• Power users: Build hidden, unapproved systems that bypass company oversight.


A management problem, not a tech problem


"When discussing this issue, I often hear leaders blame the technology. However, I believe that blaming the tech is missing the point; I see it as a failure of leadership," Mistry said. "When already overburdened employees who are constantly having to do more with less are handed vague mandates to just use AI without any training, they use it to look busy and produce volume-based work. Because many companies still reward the volume of work produced rather than the actual impact, employees naturally use these tools to generate slick but empty deliverables."


"I believe that blaming the tech is missing the point; I see it as a failure of leadership. Because many companies still reward the volume of work produced rather than the actual impact, employees naturally use these tools to generate slick but empty deliverables."


The real costs to organizations and incoming employees


Mistry outlines three risks organizations face if they don’t intervene:


1. The workslop epidemic


"These programs allow people to generate massive amounts of workslop, which is low-effort fluff that looks good but lacks substance. It takes seconds to create, but hours for someone else to decipher, fact-check, and fix," Mistry notes. "This drains money (up to $9 million annually for large companies) and destroys morale. As an educator, researcher, and a person brought into organizations to help fix problems, I for one do not want to be on the receiving end of a thoughtless, automated data dump, especially on tasks that require real skill and deep thinking."


2. Legal disaster


He also states, "When the cut and paste mentality makes its way into professional submissions, the risks to the organization are real and oftentimes catastrophic. Courts have made it perfectly clear: ignorance is no excuse. If your name is on the document, you own the liability. Recently, attorneys have faced severe sanctions, hefty fines, and case dismissals for blindly submitting fake legal citations made up by computers."


Click here for a list of cases.


3. A warning for incoming talent


For new graduates entering this environment, Mistry offers a warning: Do not rely on AI to do your deep thinking. "If you simply use AI to blast out polished but unverified drafts, you become a replaceable 'cut and paste' employee," he says. “To truly stand out, new grads must prove they have the discernment to review, tweak, and challenge what the computer writes. The hiring edge is no longer just saying, 'I can do this task,' but 'I know how to leverage and correct AI to help me perform it.'"


Four ideas to fix it


To survive and indeed thrive with these new tools and avoid the unintended consequences of untrained staff, organizations should:


1. Reinforce the importance of fact-checking and editing: Adopt frameworks that teach employees how to show their work and log how they verified computer-generated facts.


2. Change the incentives: Stop rewarding busy work, useless reports, and massive slide decks. Evaluate employees on accuracy and results.


3. Eradicate superficial work: Don’t use automation to speed up ineffective legacy processes. Instead, use it to identify and eliminate them entirely.


4. Make time for editing: Give yourself and your employees the breathing room to actually review, tweak, and challenge what the computer writes instead of accepting the first draft.


Mistry is available to discuss:


Why AI is causing an epidemic of corporate "workslop" (and how to spot it).


The leadership failure behind the "cut and paste" employee.


How to rewrite corporate incentives to measure impact instead of volume in the AI era.


Strategies for implementing safe, effective AI policies at work.


How new college graduates can avoid the "workslop" trap in their first jobs.


To reach Mistry directly and arrange an interview, visit his profile and click on the "contact" button. Interested reporters can also send an email to MediaRelations@udel.edu.

Connect with:
Saleem Mistry

Saleem Mistry

Associate Professor, Management

Prof. Mistry's research seeks to unpack factors that shape fragmentation and integration within and between leaders, individuals and teams.

Organizational BehaviorTeam ChartersLeadershipMuliteamingTeam Resilience
Powered by

You might also like...

Check out some other posts from University of Delaware

How the Class of 2026 can keep resumes out of the digital black hole featured image

2 min

How the Class of 2026 can keep resumes out of the digital black hole

Students set to graduate this May are entering a job market where the rules of engagement are being rewritten in real-time. AI is both friend and foe, and ghosting has become the norm. University of Delaware career expert Jill Panté shares how college students can navigate these challenges in a rapidly shifting economy. Panté, director of the Lerner Career Services Center at UD, can apply her expertise to the following: The AI recruitment gap • How to prevent resumes from falling into the "digital black hole" of automated tracking systems. • Current recruitment in 2026 is heavily filtered by AI. If resumes don't mirror the language of the job description, a human might never even see it. • In 2026, AI is the gatekeeper. Students who aren’t using AI for assistance are working twice as hard for half the results. However, the goal is to use it as a co-pilot, not an autopilot. Beat the bots (tailor your content) • Use tools like Resume Worded or Generative AI like Microsoft Co-Pilot or Gemini to see how resumes stack up against specific job postings. • It is better to send five highly tailored, thoughtful applications than 50 generic ones that get auto-rejected by an algorithm. • Use AI to run a mock interview based on the job description and company. The "hidden” job market • If a "job search" consists solely of clicking "Easy Apply" on LinkedIn for six hours a day, it’s not searching; it’s just doom-scrolling with a resume. Roughly 80% of your time should be spent talking to humans. The other 20% should be spent on applications and research. • Find the recruiter or a department head on LinkedIn. Send a brief (2-3 sentence) note reiterating your interest. • Leverage alumni networks through LinkedIn. Narrative branding • Especially for Gen Z: Hiring managers don't just want to know what you did; they want to know the impact you made. • Instead of saying "Responsible for social media,” say "Increased engagement by 40% over 3 months by implementing a new video strategy." • Always lead with results (LinkedIn, resume, Interviews) to showcase the value you bring. Workforce anxiety • Managing the mental toll of the modern, high-speed job search and the professional "ghosting" epidemic. • Establish a personal "Board of Directors" to provide a balance of support, accountability and feedback. • Maintain momentum by volunteering, attending local networking events and learning new skills on platforms like LinkedIn Learning and Coursera. To reach Jill Panté directly and arrange an interview, visit her profile and click on the “contact” button.

New report proves earning potential of EVs equipped with vehicle-to-grid technology featured image

5 min

New report proves earning potential of EVs equipped with vehicle-to-grid technology

The University of Delaware, Exelon Corporation/Delmarva Power and collaborators have released a new report showing that electric vehicles equipped with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology can be profitable for private owners and businesses alike, with data from real electricity markets to back up the claims. The report is the outcome of a pilot program announced in 2024 by UD, and completed at the offices of Delmarva Power, which is part of Exelon Corporation, to confirm the value of V2G services to the grid. Among the key findings: the collaborators report that a V2G-enabled passenger electric vehicle (EV) could earn as much as $3,359 per year, based on 2021-2025 market prices, for storing and supplying energy to the electric grid during times of need, otherwise known as providing grid services. Heavier vehicles, such as fleet vehicles, delivery trucks or school buses, could earn over $9,000 per year, per vehicle. That’s a powerful income generator, given that privately owned vehicles are parked 96% of the time, on average, in the United States. Company fleet vehicles — even those operating 40 hours per week — remain stationary 75% of the average work week. The pilot, which included collaborators Ford Motor Company, the region’s electric grid operator PJM Interconnection, and aggregator Nuvve Corp., was tested using a small fleet of Delmarva Power EVs retrofitted with the bidirectional charging technology and a new advanced communications standard. The term “bidirectional charging” means that the V2G technology enables electric vehicle batteries to store extra energy from the electric grid when there is a surplus and to discharge that energy back to the grid when it is needed. In this way, V2G-enabled EVs can help the grid stay balanced, strengthening grid resilience and reliability, especially during peak demand and extreme weather events. New PJM rules allow properly certified EVs to provide this balancing and be paid for it — and the pilot proved they can meet these requirements and be paid for the service. For UD Professor Willett Kempton, who invented the V2G technology with colleagues at the University nearly 30 years ago, it’s a pivotal moment. “Whether it could scale cost-effectively was an open question, and we’ve proven that it can — with the right combination of policies, standards and technology,” said Kempton, professor of marine science and policy. For businesses such as Exelon, the report makes clear that V2G technology can help offset the cost of fleet electric vehicles while supporting the electric grid. This is because when the batteries in the parked fleet vehicles are aggregated together, they can function as a virtual power plant. The result is energy storage and supply that is available to the electric grid significantly faster than other conventional power resources, with virtually no wait times needed to power up or down. Unlocking a parked vehicle’s earning power Since Kempton and colleagues pioneered the innovative V2G technology, UD researchers have kept the charge going, accelerating progress on everything from V2G technology development to new automotive communication standards (called LIN-CP) for electric cars. They have advanced policy innovations at the state and federal level to overcome barriers in widespread adoption by enabling V2G technology to compete in electric markets, too. The recent pilot with Exelon/Delmarva Power and others also revealed that the EV batteries used for V2G remained fully functional after a full year of market operation — with no measured reduction in battery health — all while providing pollution-free power. “Something that might not be obvious to everyone is that these payments are not a subsidy; these EVs are earning money by competing with legacy generators, which is novel in a lot of ways,” said Kempton. “And when you’re participating in the market instead of a fuel-burning generator, you’re also reducing pollution.” This makes the technology both economically smart and functionally sound in a world where the electric grid is expected to include more renewables in the coming years. Kempton explained that most U.S. planned future electricity generation is scheduled to come from wind and solar. This will create greater fluctuation in the electric grid, which means more storage for energy surpluses will be needed. That’s where V2G can help, Kempton said. According to Brian Derr, senior analyst, Exelon Technology and R&D, insights from the pilot will inform future deployments and support the company’s broader strategy to enable the clean energy transition while maintaining reliable service for the communities it serves. “By leveraging existing assets in new ways, Exelon is positioning itself to build a more flexible, resilient and customer-focused energy system,” said Derr. Accelerating progress toward a V2G industry Next steps to expand the V2G industry to support the grid will require mass manufacturing to scale up the number of individual cars or fleets that are participating and earning money, Kempton said. Until now, changes to V2G-enabled vehicles have been done by retrofitting existing EVs to accommodate the V2G technology. Now with lower-cost standards and realistic market revenue values that can be expected, Kempton is looking at how this becomes adopted in many cars and many charging stations. “We’ll need at least a few car companies and charging station companies to mass produce this V2G equipment, and to deploy the technology into vehicles in the factory,” Kempton said. “If it is designed in, and mass produced, it’s incredibly cheap, especially when you compare it to the potential yearly revenue.” At UD, faculty and students continue to play a large role in the work aimed at bringing a fully functioning V2G industry to fruition. Kempton, Rodney McGee and recent graduates John Metz and Catherine Gilman, for example, are focused on policy changes and standards to allow V2G-enabled electric vehicles to provide grid services in more states. Such policies currently exist in Delaware and Maryland. Kempton would like to see this number grow. Meanwhile, UD postdoctoral researcher Garrett Ejzak and alumnus Go Charan Kilaru are focused on other aspects of the work. Ejzak is developing and testing these new EV technologies, and Kilaru is designing cryptography measures to ensure security protocols for V2G communications. Concurrently, UD students Colden Rother, Jude Borden, Lucia Paye-Layleh and Emmie Rossi are examining ways UD could electrify some of its campus fleets, under the advisement of UD’s Kimberly Oremus, associate professor of marine science and policy, economics, and public policy and administration. To arrange an interview with Kempton, visit his profile page below and click on the "contact" button. For interviews with officials from Exelon/Delmarva Power, contact ​​Matt Ford, in  ​Delmarva Power Communications, at 302-429-3060.

University of Delaware biomedical engineer helps develop first immune-capable cervix-on-a-chip featured image

2 min

University of Delaware biomedical engineer helps develop first immune-capable cervix-on-a-chip

A major breakthrough in biomedical engineering is changing how scientists study sexually transmitted infections (STIs) – and a researcher from the University of Delaware is at the forefront. Published in Science Advances, the study introduces the first immune-capable “cervix-on-a-chip,” a cutting-edge microphysiological system that replicates the human cervical environment. The platform allows researchers to observe how infections, the immune system and the vaginal microbiome interact in real time – something not previously possible with traditional lab models. Co-lead author Jason Gleghorn, associate professor in the College of Engineering, led the development of the model. His work highlights how engineering-driven approaches are advancing critical research in women’s health. By integrating engineering with biology, we can now simulate complex human systems more accurately and make these tools accessible to a wider range of researchers, Gleghorn said. The model recreates key features of the cervix using human cells, immune components and naturally occurring microbiomes within a dynamic system that mimics physiological conditions. When tested with infections such as chlamydia and gonorrhea, the platform revealed how protective bacteria can reduce infection risk – while imbalanced microbiomes can worsen outcomes. These findings could help accelerate the development of new therapies, including probiotics and other preventative strategies aimed at strengthening the body’s natural defenses. The research underscores the growing impact of the College of Engineering, where interdisciplinary collaboration is driving innovation across biomedical engineering and beyond. By combining expertise in engineering, microbiology and immunology, the team has created a powerful new tool that could reshape how STIs – and other complex diseases – are studied. To speak with Gleghorn further about this advancement, email mediarelations@udel.edu.

View all posts
Powered by