New research shows AI polish makes it harder to spot problems. But there’s a quick fix.

[#1]

Hey Atlassian Community!

Raise your hand if you slap an “Early Draft” label on an AI-polished doc. That increases your chances of receiving better feedback on your work, according to a recent Atlassian Teamwork Lab study revealing an “AI polish effect.”

A controlled experiment with 903 knowledge workers showed that AI-polished work was harder to review:

• More flaws went unnoticed: Reviewers were 22% less likely to flag the first flaw and 15% less likely to catch the second

• More effort was required to read it: Reviewers spent 62% more time reviewing, reading it 31% slower

• Less critique came back: Reviewers were 18% less willing to provide feedback

Marking the work “Early Draft” largely negated the AI polish effect, without reducing perceived effort. As Teamwork Lab researcher Morgan Weaving says, “Polish signals effort — but it also makes mistakes harder to spot. The fix is easy: polish your draft, then tell people it’s early. You get the credit for the effort without losing the chance for meaningful feedback.”

Have you noticed the AI polish effect? Tell me in the comments!

[Tomislav Tobijas]

Interesting research! 👀

Now that I’ve read this, I can actually relate to it a bit. The moment someone says, “It was (re)written with AI,” I feel like my brain immediately puts some kind of label on it. 😅

And weirdly enough, that does make it a little harder for me to review it the same way I normally would. Definitely something to keep in mind! 👀

[Anna Brown]

Yes @Tomislav Tobijas , exactly! My eyes kind of just start looking "through" the AI writing rather than actually reading it, because it's too perfect (and usually too long).