March 11, 2026
Public Perception of AI
People find that the use of AI – particularly generative tools – as a cheap shortcut. They see AI as a low-effort replacement for costly, complex, or time-consuming work. To be fair, AI expedites many processes that would have otherwise taken months to complete. This is not the downside of AI, rather, it is how it is used.
The negative public perception is based on AI replacing Human work and in their stead are unscreened, unpolished, hallucinated responses and images that come off as uncanny. One example is the 2025 Coca-Cola commercial titled “Holidays are Coming” which was completely AI generated from the story down to the visuals (The Coca‑Cola Company, 2025; O’Reilly, 2025). These are all things that artists could’ve been paid to do and Pepsi capitalized. February 2026, Pepsi releases an advertisement titled “The Choice” ahead of Super Bowl LX (PepsiCo, 2026a; PepsiCo, 2026b). The advertisement was not only well received, but it also poked fun at their rival’s choice to solely use AI on their advertising.
This paints the picture pretty clearly – “AI is slop”
But is it really that simple?
AI Assistance with Human Direction
AI has changed the way we approach research and development, accelerating tasks that once took months or years. But speed alone isn’t what makes AI valuable – purpose and human direction do. On its own, AI has clear limitations: it cannot define goals, understand context, or validate meaning.
When experts guide it, however, AI delivers real breakthroughs. One of the strongest examples is in science, where researchers used AI to solve complex protein structures, a contribution recognized by the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and a milestone that now accelerates global drug discovery (The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 2024; Callaway, 2024). This success wasn’t AI replacing researchers – it was AI amplifying them. Scientists provided the vision, constraints, and validation; AI provided speed and scale.
That’s the difference between AI “slop” and AI that genuinely moves humanity forward: the right people driving the right tools toward the right purpose.
And this principle applies far beyond scientific labs.
Empowering the Future
In the IT industry, AI is already reshaping how we build and test software. There’s plenty of noise about what AI can automate or replace – but as testers, we see AI for what it truly is: a tool that still needs human judgment.
AI can speed up testing and surface issues faster, but humans validate the results and ensure the product works for real people. AI assists the process, but the product is always meant for people, not algorithms.
Ask yourselves this,
Would you rather use an app that a human has barely touched through development?
Or would you rather use one that has a human’s validation throughout development?
That’s what AI powered, human driven looks like in practice. It is responsible application of AI tools and thorough, expert human oversight.
AI accelerates the process so we can test fast.
Humans are there every step of the way to shape the outcome.
That way, we ensure quality without compromise for the end user – you.
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