Apollo Economist Torsten Slok Says AI Has Paid Off Little Outside Big Tech

A note from Apollo's chief economist says profit margins and revenue per worker look flat at most large US companies.

Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo Global Management, says AI has produced "zero financial payoff" for corporate America outside the tech sector, according to TechCrunch. The claim comes from a note Slok published on Apollo's website. TechCrunch points out that Apollo is a private equity firm that formerly owned TechCrunch.

Slok looked at the "S&P 493", meaning the S&P 500 without Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla. In that group, he says profit margins and revenue per worker look flat, and he found no sign that AI is raising productivity.

He doubts the gap is simply slower adoption. His argument is that it will be hard for businesses to turn cheap intelligence into higher revenue growth and profit margins, because in business "intelligence is mostly judgment." He adds that AI does not grasp accountability, trust, culture or ethical trade-offs, which affect reputation and, in turn, revenue. TechCrunch notes that other recent studies have also found little productivity gain so far.