Apollo economist says AI has delivered zero financial payoff outside tech
Torsten Slok finds flat profit margins and revenue per worker in the S&P 493.
Money#02
493
S&P companies outside the seven tech giants
Image: TechCrunch
493S&P companies outside the seven tech giants
The short version
- Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo Global Management, says AI has not improved the bottom line of big companies outside the tech industry.
- In a recent note, Slok looked at the S&P 493, which is the S&P 500 minus Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla.
- He found that profit margins and revenue per worker appear to be flat, with no evidence that AI is improving productivity.
- Recent studies have also found that AI has yet to deliver significant productivity gains.
Why it matters
The note challenges the idea that cheap AI will automatically raise revenue and margins at non-tech firms. Slok argues that business depends on judgment, accountability and trust, which AI does not capture. For developers, it is a reminder that productivity gains are not yet visible in company financials.
“Despite massive investments and widespread hype around artificial intelligence, the technology has delivered zero financial payoff to corporate America outside of tech,”