Corporate Buzzwords: Why Are They Still a Thing?

When so many people hate corporate buzzwords, why are they so common? Learn which business jargon terms annoy people the most going into 2026.

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By Danuta Detyna, Senior Content WriterLast Updated : February 18, 2026

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You’ve seen them everywhere, from board meetings to brand advertisements. Corporate buzzwords sneak into daily conversations like a snake into the Garden of Eden. And just like that snake, they offer false promises. Business jargon doesn’t convey professionalism – instead, it obscures meaning and annoys everyone.

In this article, I’m sharing an overview of universally disliked corporate buzzwords, my personal selection of corporate speak that should be avoided, plus predictions for the future of business jargon. 

The uncontrollable spread of business jargon

The way we communicate daily is changing for reasons not only related to generational differences but also to work culture. According to a 2023 study conducted by Preply, a language tutoring platform, corporate speak is unavoidable:

Preply also noted the 10 most annoying buzzwords:

Why is corporate speak intensely disliked? 

The hate for corporate jargon crosses borders and continents. Duolingo surveyed 8,000 professionals from 8 countries and gathered that:

If you need another reason to drop buzzwords from your communication, here it goes: jargon decreases productivity. 57% of workers worldwide reported that a misunderstanding of jargon wastes their time several times a month, and 32% said it leads to wasted time multiple times per week.

What’s the most confusing corporate jargon in the U.K., specifically? Here are the phrases picked by respondents:

And here’s the most common workplace jargon in the U.K.:

Corporate jargon also shows a misalignment between the average worker’s and management’s expectations. According to Careerminds’ survey from 2024, these are the most-hated phrases used by supervisors:

Many of the buzzwords from this list are intended to inspire employees, but instead sound condescending. Additionally, they put focus on individual contributions rather than team efforts.

As a former English language teacher, I can easily imagine that using so much business jargon leads to confusion among various generations of workers, as well as employees whose first language isn’t English. When workers must figure out the meaning behind idioms on their own, it can cause stress and create an unpleasant office environment. Though English is the 21st-century lingua franca for business, I firmly believe that enterprises operating in a globalised world should strive to communicate straightforwardly, providing employees with equal opportunities to succeed.

10 corporate buzzwords that should have stayed in 2025

I propose another list of corporate buzzwords that we should collectively stop using in daily communication now that we’re in 2026. Some of the words and phrases on the list are unnecessarily confusing, while others will soon fall out of fashion due to technological developments. If you don’t want your company to remain in 2025 forever, drop these workplace buzzwords from your lingo:

1. AI-powered

🔍 Origin: Once generative AI emerged and became widely used in everyday life, companies realised its untapped marketing potential. In 2025, everything became AI-powered, from mobile apps to coffee makers. Gen Z is so tired of AI that they refer to related applications as ‘clankers’.

💬 Plain meaning: The product or service that is enhanced by artificial intelligence.

🔮 Future outlook: It’s likely to fade by the late 2020s, when using AI will be so commonplace that everyone will assume it is already the case. The new catchphrase could be ‘AI debt’, proposed by Asana in their 2025 report on AI usage, as 79% of organisations are expected to accumulate it through poorly implemented autonomous systems.

2. Let’s circle back

🔍 Origin: This phrase appeared in business jargon around the mid-to-late 20th century. Now it’s everywhere, from meetings and emails to instant messaging.

💬 Plain meaning: “I’ll get back to you later” or “We’ll return to this topic later.”

🔮 Future outlook: The phrase will likely get simplified or replaced with a new buzzword with the same meaning.

3. Disrupt

🔍 Origin: Stems from the 1995 idea of disruptive innovation by Clayton Christensen; it became popular among tech businesses in the 2000s. Nowadays, almost every product and startup claims it’ll disrupt the industry.

💬 Plain meaning: To radically change the industry or market

🔮 Future outlook: It’s getting replaced by “high agency”, a new buzzword emerging in the tech industry to describe people who find or create opportunities where others see obstacles.

4. Leverage

🔍 Origin: The word itself has been around since the 18th century, but it entered corporate slang in the 21st century. You can hear it in meetings as well as find it in strategy documents and marketing reports.

💬 Plain meaning: To use something to gain an advantage

🔮 Future outlook: It’s likely to stay around, as it’s a word that has existed outside of business contexts for centuries.

5. 30,000-foot view

🔍 Origin: In aviation, it’s the altitude where commercial planes cruise; the phrase sneaked into corporate speak in the early 21st century.

💬 Plain meaning: A zoomed-out view of something

🔮 Future outlook: Likely to be replaced by a new phrase referring to commercial space travel, for example: “Mars-based view.”

6. Lean into

🔍 Origin: A variation of the phrase “lean in” popularised by Sheryl Sandberg, a former Facebook executive, in her bestselling 2013 book with the same title, offering women tips to succeed in life. The phrase gained widespread popularity in motivational speeches, strategic documents, and HR discussions.

💬 Plain meaning: to embrace something actively or to apply effort to something

🔮 Future outlook: This phrase might fade away, as Sandberg’s book and her iconic phrase gathered much criticism for putting too much emphasis on women’s individual choices rather than systemic issues they face throughout their lives. It’s possible that “lean into” will be replaced by “support” or “advocate”.

7. Growth hacking

🔍 Origin: Created in 2010 by Sean Ellis to describe a data-driven approach to quick user growth, it became popular in startup communities. You may encounter this phrase when reviewing marketing strategy documents and attending product conferences.

💬 Plain meaning: increasing user or customer base through low-cost but data-driven actions

🔮 Future outlook: Hopefully, stakeholders will push their sales and marketing teams to drop this vague phrase and instead outline specific plans to expand the customer base.

8. Evangelist

🔍 Origin: Originally describing a religious messenger, it’s been used since the 1980s by marketing and tech professionals. Mike Murray from Apple coined the term “software evangelist”, and Guy Kawasaki popularised it. Nowadays, it’s common in marketing, tech PR, developer relations, and conferences.

💬 Plain meaning: Someone who is passionate about a product and promotes it

🔮 Future outlook: Sticking to religious references, I hope ‘evangelist’ will be pushed out by ‘crusader’ to highlight the uncontrolled political influence tech companies have in the 21st century.

9. 996

🔍 Origin: Originating in China, it described a common work schedule in Chinese tech firms: from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., 6 days a week. It spread to Silicon Valley, as startups and corporations that want to compete with Chinese tech companies push their employees to work extremely long hours.

💬 Plain meaning: Working insanely long hours

🔮 Future outlook: Hopefully, it will be replaced with something describing a reasonable work schedule. Worker exploitation should be a thing of the past.

10. Shift the paradigm

🔍 Origin: The phrase was popularised by Thomas Kuhn in 1962 in academic writing. It spread to tech marketing and strategy documents to boost the egos of founders and inventors.

💬 Plain meaning: to change the usual way of thinking or doing things

🔮 Future outlook: It could be replaced with ‘revolutionise’ or ‘transform’, which have similar meanings and are easier to understand.

Final thoughts

Corporate jargon isn’t a bad thing in itself. However, overusing workplace buzzwords, especially when communicating with international teams, can lead to confusion and wasted time. Ultimately, individual productivity and morale can drop due to frequent misunderstandings. 

My recommendation? Make your messages clear. When most popular English language novels are written at the 7th-grade level, there’s little need for your corporate emails, business speeches, and marketing reports to go far above that. Your international colleagues will appreciate it.

Methodology

This article on the most-hated workplace buzzwords was created based on a multi-source review of publicly available surveys and linguistic studies. The process included:

Sources

Danuta Detyna

Senior Content Writer

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Danuta is a Certified Professional Résumé Writer and career expert known for her empathetic, research-driven approach to career development. With over nine years of experience as a professional writer, she specialises in creating effective CVs, cover letters, and career advice articles that empower individuals to pursue their goals with confidence.