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The rapid proliferation of generative artificial intelligence has fundamentally altered the landscape of digital content, leading to a phenomenon increasingly categorized as "AI slop"—low-quality, uninspired, and often redundant material that fails to resonate with human audiences. As organizations scramble to integrate large language models (LLMs) into their communications strategies, the distinction between mere efficiency and genuine influence has become a central point of debate. Austin Roth-Eagle, the leader of AI adoption for global communications at Cisco, argues that while AI can provide unprecedented leverage, it remains fundamentally incapable of replicating the human "taste" required to break through a saturated content economy.
At Cisco, Roth-Eagle heads the company’s AI Acceleration Office, a cross-functional initiative designed to scale AI workflows across the organization’s global communications apparatus. His perspective is rooted in a career that has bridged the gap between high-level executive storytelling and technical data analytics. Having served as a CEO communications strategist for both Cisco and VMware, Roth-Eagle has witnessed the evolution of corporate messaging from the early days of social media dominance to the current era of generative automation. His insights suggest that the future of successful communication lies not in the total outsourcing of content creation to machines, but in a refined synergy where human judgment guides every stage of the technological process.
The Evolution of the AI-Driven Communicator
The trajectory of Austin Roth-Eagle’s career serves as a blueprint for the modern communications professional. Starting his journey in the Office of the CEO at VMware, Roth-Eagle focused on digital program management, social media strategy, and metrics. He quickly identified a critical power dynamic in corporate environments: data acts as the ultimate equalizer. For a young professional advising seasoned executives, subjective opinions on strategy are often met with skepticism, but data-backed research commands respect. This realization led Roth-Eagle to pursue a Master’s in Business Analytics, a move that coincided with the public release of ChatGPT in late 2022.
The timing was transformative. As the academic world and the tech industry simultaneously pivoted toward generative AI, Roth-Eagle observed a shift in how "leverage" was defined in a professional context. What began as a personal effort to use AI to streamline his own tasks evolved into a leadership role within Cisco, where he now drives AI adoption across the entire organization. This shift reflects a broader trend in the Fortune 500 landscape, where companies are moving beyond experimental AI use cases toward the establishment of dedicated AI offices to govern and scale the technology’s application in public relations and internal communications.
The Efficiency Paradox: Speed Without Taste
One of the most significant contradictions in the current AI boom is the gap between output volume and output quality. Roth-Eagle notes that AI is exceptionally proficient at making workflows more efficient. When a content idea is broken down into granular, well-defined steps, AI can accelerate the transition from concept to draft with remarkable speed. However, this efficiency often comes at the cost of "taste"—a quality Roth-Eagle defines as the human capacity for judgment, nuance, and distinctive voice.
"You can ask [AI] to write a compelling blog about technology, and you’ll get one of the worst blogs you’ve ever seen," Roth-Eagle observes. This failure is what the industry has dubbed "AI slop." Because LLMs are trained on existing datasets to predict the most likely next word in a sequence, their output tends toward the average. In the world of high-stakes communications, "average" is rarely effective. To break through the noise of the content economy, writing must be provocative, unique, and deeply informed by a specific point of view—elements that predictive models are not currently designed to generate autonomously.
Strategic Workflows and the Importance of Human Oversight
The solution to the "AI slop" problem is not to abandon the technology, but to change how it is integrated into the creative process. Roth-Eagle advocates for a workflow that treats AI as a formatting and amplification tool rather than a replacement for the writer’s voice. In this model, the human communicator remains the architect of the message.
The traditional pre-AI workflow—research, identifying a unique angle, building an outline, drafting, and editing—remains the gold standard. The difference now lies in identifying which of those sub-tasks can be augmented by AI. For example, AI might be used to synthesize research or format an existing outline into a specific structure, but the "unique angle" must originate from a human mind.
Roth-Eagle emphasizes that human oversight should not be a final "check" at the end of the process. Instead, it must be an ongoing presence from "step one through step N." If a communicator is surprised by the output an AI produces, it usually indicates a failure in the guidance process. The goal is for the human to guide the model so closely that the output is a precise reflection of the human’s original intent and voice.
Supporting Data and the State of AI in Public Relations
The challenges cited by Roth-Eagle are reflected in broader industry data. According to recent surveys by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and various communications research firms, while over 60% of PR professionals have experimented with generative AI, a significant majority express concerns regarding the "homogenization" of content. Furthermore, data from the Reuters Institute suggests that audiences are becoming increasingly adept at identifying AI-generated text, often leading to a "trust deficit" if the content feels impersonal or robotic.
The rise of "AI slop" also has technical implications. Search engines and social media algorithms are increasingly being updated to prioritize "helpful content" written by humans for humans. Content that lacks original insight or a unique perspective is being de-prioritized in search rankings, meaning that organizations relying solely on automated content generation may find their reach diminishing over time. This supports Roth-Eagle’s assertion that "voice" is the most important element for breaking through in the current economy.
Implications for Early-Career Professionals
For the next generation of communicators, the path to success involves a dual-track development of skills. Roth-Eagle suggests that the most valuable professionals in the AI era will be those who possess both deep domain expertise and high AI fluency.
Domain expertise—the ability to understand what "good" looks like in a specific field—is what allows a professional to exercise taste and judgment. Without this, a person cannot effectively critique or refine AI output. Conversely, without AI fluency, a professional with great taste will lack the leverage to compete in a high-volume market.
"Young professionals should find that intersection," Roth-Eagle advises. "Become an expert in something like writing or communications and understand what good, mediocre, and bad look like. That’s taste and judgment, which models don’t have and may never have."
The Broader Impact on Organizational Storytelling
As Cisco and other tech giants continue to refine their AI strategies, the role of the "AI agent" and the "playbook" will become increasingly prominent. These tools allow organizations to scale their authentic voice by training models on specific brand guidelines and historical content that reflects a true human perspective.
However, the core mission of communications remains unchanged: storytelling. Whether through podcasts—a medium Roth-Eagle personally utilizes to stay informed via outlets like Morning Brew Daily and the Tech Brew Ride Home—or through written blogs and executive social media, the goal is to connect with an audience.
The emergence of AI has not lowered the bar for entry into the content economy; it has raised the bar for what is considered "valuable." In a world where anyone can generate a thousand words of generic text in seconds, the value of a single, well-crafted, and original thought has never been higher. Austin Roth-Eagle’s work at Cisco serves as a reminder that technology is a multiplier, not a creator. The "leverage" provided by AI is only as powerful as the human voice it is intended to amplify.
Conclusion and Future Outlook
The transition toward AI-augmented communications is inevitable, but the "AI slop" era may be a temporary growing pain as organizations learn the limits of the technology. As the novelty of automated text wears off, the market is likely to correct itself, favoring creators who use AI to handle the "drudge work" of formatting and data synthesis while reserving the creative core for human ingenuity.
Austin Roth-Eagle will continue to share these methodologies, including how to break workflows into manageable steps and use AI playbooks to maintain authenticity, at upcoming industry forums such as Ragan’s Writing Certificate Course. His approach underscores a vital truth for the digital age: in the race to automate, the winners will be those who refuse to automate their soul. The human voice, characterized by its unique flaws, passions, and "taste," remains the only content that can truly break through.
