Apollo Global Management chief economist Torsten Slok said on Saturday that artificial intelligence has produced no measurable financial benefit for corporate America outside the technology industry.
In a research note published by the private equity firm, Slok analyzed the S&P 500 after removing the seven largest tech companies. He calls this group the S&P 493, made up of Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla. He found that profit margins and revenue per employee have shown no improvement since 2022.
"Despite massive investments and widespread hype around artificial intelligence, the technology has delivered zero financial payoff to corporate America outside of tech," Slok wrote.
Revenue per employee for the seven biggest tech firms has climbed from $550,000 to almost $800,000 since 2022, according to Apollo's analysis. For the remaining S&P 500 companies, that metric has hardly moved, staying near $550,000 for roughly seven years.
Profit margins follow the same pattern. Tech company margins have surged since 2022 while non-tech margins have been stuck around 10 percent.
Slok doubted that mainstream corporations can turn increasingly affordable intelligence into stronger revenue growth and profit margins. "AI may be a great calculator, but in business, intelligence is mostly judgment," he wrote. He also noted that AI lacks understanding of accountability, trust, corporate culture, unwritten rules, ethical trade-offs and fairness. These elements shape reputational risk and ultimately drive revenue and margins.
The findings line up with recent academic studies that have yet to detect significant productivity gains from AI adoption across the broader economy. TechCrunch and Business Insider reported on the Apollo note Saturday.