A company's attempt to boost its Glassdoor rating with AI-generated positive reviews backfired spectacularly when employees noticed something suspicious: every new review sounded like it was written by a robot having the best day of its digital life. Words like "synergistic," "dynamic work environment," and "unparalleled growth opportunities" appeared in reviews for a company where the break room coffee machine has been broken for six months.

The Too-Good-To-Be-True Reviews

Reports indicate that over a two-week period, the company received 23 five-star Glassdoor reviews that were all suspiciously similar in tone and structure. Each review praised "amazing leadership," "collaborative culture," and "competitive compensation," despite the fact that actual employees had been complaining about micromanagement, siloed teams, and below-market salaries for months.

According to user discussions on workplace forums, the reviews all followed similar patterns: they used formal, corporate language that no actual employee would use casually, they hit every single positive keyword like they were checking boxes, and they contained zero specific details about actual work experiences. Real employees write things like "the free snacks are good but management is chaotic." AI writes things like "the organization's commitment to employee wellness initiatives creates a nurturing ecosystem for professional development."

One employee reportedly commented on the company's internal Slack: "Who writes 'the company's robust benefits package and forward-thinking leadership make it an exemplary workplace'? Nobody. Literally nobody talks like that." Other employees piled on, comparing the reviews to corporate press releases and AI chatbot responses.

The Evidence Piles Up

User reviews on sites like Glassdoor can sometimes be flagged for being fraudulent, and these triggered basically every red flag. Posted from different accounts within days of each other, all using similar phrasing, all five stars with zero constructive criticism, and all vague enough that they could apply to any company in any industry. The only thing missing was "I am a real human employee and not a language model."

According to sources familiar with review site moderation, AI-generated reviews are getting more sophisticated, but they still have tells. They're too polished, too positive, and too generic. Real employee reviews have personality, specific complaints, and usually at least one petty grievance about parking or the thermostat. The AI reviews had none of that. Just relentless positivity and corporate buzzwords.

Real employees started leaving their own reviews specifically calling out the fake ones. Comments like "Unlike the AI-generated reviews below, here's what actually working here is like..." and "If you're reading the suspiciously positive reviews from the past two weeks, please note those were not written by humans." Glassdoor's authenticity filters allegedly started flagging the reviews, and several were eventually removed.

The Fallout

Reports suggest that leadership initially denied any involvement with fake reviews, calling it a "coincidence" that so many positive reviews appeared during the same period the company was trying to improve its employer brand for recruiting purposes. Employees weren't buying it. Neither was Glassdoor, apparently, since the reviews vanished.

The company's actual rating remained unchanged because the fake reviews were removed, which means they spent time and possibly money generating AI content that accomplished absolutely nothing. Well, nothing except making current employees more cynical and giving the company a reputation for trying to fake its culture instead of fixing it.

Candidates started asking about the fake reviews in interviews. Recruiters had to awkwardly explain that "there may have been some inauthentic content posted" and pivot to talking about "real employee testimonials." The whole situation became a bigger PR problem than the mediocre Glassdoor rating they were trying to fix in the first place.

The Lesson

If your company culture is so bad that you need AI to generate fake positive reviews, maybe work on the actual culture instead of the marketing. Employees can spot fake reviews. Candidates can spot fake reviews. Even AI can probably spot fake reviews at this point, which is beautifully ironic.

And for the record: if your Glassdoor reviews mention "synergistic collaboration" or "dynamic ecosystems," you're not fooling anyone. Real employees are too tired and too honest to write like that. Try fixing the coffee machine instead.