In a recent note, Apollo Global Management’s chief economist Torsten Slok says AI has delivered zero financial payoff to corporate America outside the tech sector. He focuses on what he calls the S&P 493—the S&P 500 minus Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla—finding that profit margins and revenue per worker appear flat, with no evidence AI is improving productivity. "Despite massive investments and widespread hype around artificial intelligence, the technology has delivered zero financial payoff to corporate America outside of tech," Slok said. He argues that the current AI hype does not match the reality of stagnant profitability for non‑tech firms, noting that it will be tough for corporate America to "turn increasingly cheap intelligence into higher revenue growth and higher profit margins." AI may be a great calculator, but in business, intelligence is mostly judgment, he wrote, adding 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.
Recent studies also confirm that AI has yet to deliver significant productivity gains, underscoring a widening gap between AI‑heavy tech giants and the rest of the S&P 493.
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing