AI Has Delivered 'Zero Financial Payoff' Outside Big Tech, Apollo Economist Says

Apollo Global Management chief economist Torsten Slok says AI has not improved the bottom line of any large U.S. company outside the technology industry. In his analysis of the S&P 493, profit margins and revenue per worker appear flat, and he argues AI does not understand the judgment, accountability and trust that drive revenue and profit growth.

Artificial intelligence has not improved the bottom line of any large U.S. company outside the technology industry, according to a recent note from Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo Global Management.

Has AI Improved Profit Margins Outside Big Tech?

Slok focused on what he calls the S&P 493, which is the S&P 500 without Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla. In that group, he found that profit margins and revenue per worker appear to be flat. Nothing in the data, he said, shows AI is making companies more productive.

“Despite massive investments and widespread hype around artificial intelligence, the technology has delivered zero financial payoff to corporate America outside of tech,” Slok said.

Is this simply a matter of non-tech companies trailing the giants? Slok doubts it will be easy for them to catch up. He argued that it will be tough for corporate America to “turn increasingly cheap intelligence into higher revenue growth and higher profit margins.”

Why Is AI Not Boosting Productivity at Non-Tech Companies?

His explanation centers on judgment. “AI may be a great calculator, but in business, intelligence is mostly judgment,” he wrote. He added that “AI does not understand accountability, trust, culture, unwritten rules, ethical trade-offs or fairness, all of which shape reputational risk and ultimately drive revenue growth and profit margins.”

The findings fit a broader pattern. Recent studies have also found that AI has yet to deliver significant productivity gains, a question that has become central as companies pour money into the technology.

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