What Is AI Slop — and Why Should Advertisers Care?
In the age of generative AI, slapping “AI” onto anything has become shorthand for innovation — even when it’s just old tactics dressed up in new tech. That’s the essence of AI slop: low-quality, mass-generated content designed to game programmatic advertising ecosystems and exploit digital ad spend.
Once confined to click farms and MFA (Made-for-Advertising) sites, this content now scales faster and cheaper thanks to tools like ChatGPT. The result? A digital wasteland of fake websites, plagiarized articles, and video players designed to inflate viewability — all under the guise of legitimate media.
The Scale of the Problem
According to Deepsee.io, which monitors ad fraud across millions of signals, AI slop is growing at an alarming rate:
- A 717% increase in AI slop sites from June 2024 to May 2025.
- Over 96,000 new domains identified as AI slop — many indistinguishable at first glance from real publisher websites.
These sites often feature:
- Fake or missing bylines
- Clone-like templates
- Constant ad refreshes and overloaded video players
The metrics may look good on paper — high click-through rates, strong viewability — but they rarely translate into real engagement or sales.
Why It Matters: The Financial Risk to Advertisers
Experts warn that marketing budgets are at serious risk:
- Inflated engagement metrics distort performance insights.
- High CTRs with no incremental sales can be hard to justify to CFOs and CMOs.
- In times of economic uncertainty, programmatic channels are often the first to be cut when they don’t deliver ROI.
As Iesha White of Check My Ads Institute noted, “Programmatic has traditionally rewarded volume. That’s a sucker’s game now.”
What Can Advertisers Do?
There’s no silver bullet to stop AI slop — it’s already too widespread. But proactive quality control can mitigate risk:
✅ Use Targeted Whitelists
Curate lists of approved publishers to ensure ad dollars go to credible content creators.
✅ Delay Bidding on Unknown Inventory
Wait a few weeks before buying inventory from new or unfamiliar domains. Most slop sites burn bright — and fast.
✅ Shift Focus to Authentic, Human Content
Expect a rise in demand for sponsored content, premium takeovers, and high-impact video ads, which are harder to fake or game with AI.
The Bottom Line
AI slop isn’t just a tech or media issue — it’s a budgetary threat that advertisers, DSPs, and agencies need to take seriously. The only real defense is smarter, intentional buying based on quality, not just automation or scale.
The message is clear: If you’re not actively steering your programmatic buys, you’re probably being played — by a bot.