Apollo Economist Says AI Fails to Boost Profits for Most Firms

Artificial intelligence has not benefited the bottom line of major corporations outside of the technology sector, according to a recent note published by Torsten Slok, the chief economist at private equity firm Apollo Global Management. Slok focused his analysis on what he terms the S&P 493, representing the S&P 500 minus Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla.

His findings indicate that profit margins and revenue per worker for these companies appear flat, showing no evidence that artificial intelligence is improving productivity. Slok stated that despite massive investments and widespread hype, the technology has delivered zero financial payoff to corporate America outside of tech. Addressing whether non-tech companies are simply lagging behind tech giants, the economist expressed skepticism.

He argued that it will be difficult for corporate America to turn increasingly cheap intelligence into higher revenue growth and profit margins. Slok noted that while artificial intelligence may function as a great calculator, business success relies mostly on judgment rather than mere computation. He added that the technology 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.

Recent studies have similarly found that artificial intelligence has yet to deliver significant productivity gains.