AI delivers ‘zero financial payoff’ to most companies, Apollo economist says
TechCrunch Anthony Ha ● Covered by 4 sources
Apollo’s economist says AI hasn’t lifted profits at big non-tech companies. He says margins and worker output are flat outside the tech giants, despite the hype.
Based on reporting by TechCrunch, Anthony Ha — read the original for the full story.
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AI may be everywhere in corporate slide decks, but Apollo Global Management’s chief economist says it is not showing up where companies really count: the bottom line. In a recent note, Torsten Slok argues that outside the tech heavyweights, artificial intelligence has produced “zero financial payoff” for corporate America.
His lens is the S&P 493 — the S&P 500 after removing Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla. Looking at that group, he says profit margins and revenue per worker appear flat. No sign, in other words, that AI is meaningfully lifting productivity for the rest of the index.
Slok’s broader point is that cheaper intelligence is not the same thing as better business. He says corporate America will struggle to turn AI into higher revenue growth and fatter margins, because the hard part is not doing calculations faster.
“AI may be a great calculator,” he wrote, “but in business, intelligence is mostly judgment.” He also argued that AI does not handle accountability, trust, culture, unwritten rules, ethical trade-offs or fairness — the messy stuff that can shape reputational risk and, eventually, profit. Recent studies, he added, have also found that AI has yet to deliver major productivity gains.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
The loudest AI buyers keep talking like software suddenly became management. It didn’t. Until companies can show cleaner margins, not just bigger spend on tools and consultants, this is mostly a very expensive way to automate PowerPoint.
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