Artificial intelligence has yet to deliver measurable financial gains for most major US companies outside the technology sector, despite increasing investment in the technology, according to Torsten Slok, Chief Economist at Apollo Global Management.
In a research note published on October 24, Slok said that while leading technology companies have recorded improvements in revenue per employee and profit margins, similar gains have not emerged across the broader corporate sector.
The analysis compares the Magnificent Seven technology companies with the remaining 493 companies in the S&P 500 index. The Magnificent Seven comprise Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla.
According to Slok, revenue per worker has increased among the seven companies, while remaining broadly flat across the S&P 493. Profit margins have followed a similar pattern, with technology companies recording improvements while the remaining businesses have shown limited movement.
Slok said artificial intelligence has delivered "zero financial payoff" to corporate America outside the technology sector, adding that there is no clear evidence yet of AI accelerating broader productivity growth.
The findings come as businesses continue investing in generative AI tools, automation platforms and agentic AI systems to improve operational efficiency and support revenue growth.
However, the analysis suggests that these investments have not translated into measurable improvements in financial performance across most large US companies.
Slok also highlighted changing corporate attitudes towards AI-related expenditure. According to his assessment, some businesses are beginning to treat spending on AI tokens, the units used to process information through AI models, as an operating cost rather than a direct contributor to revenue growth.
He noted that venture capital-backed companies continue to account for a substantial share of AI consumption, while established businesses may not require the latest models or be willing to pay higher prices for them.
The concentration of AI spending among a relatively small group of companies could also limit its immediate impact on the wider economy, particularly if agentic AI adoption remains uneven.
Slok raised questions about whether falling AI model costs would necessarily help businesses improve revenue and profitability.
He argued that business decisions involve considerations beyond computational capabilities, including organisational context, accountability, trust and reputational risk.
The assessment does not establish that individual AI deployments have failed or that companies cannot generate future returns. Rather, it indicates that measurable benefits have not yet appeared consistently in the broader financial and productivity indicators examined.
For enterprises investing in AI, the findings place attention on the relationship between technology expenditure and measurable business outcomes, including productivity, operating costs, revenue generation and profitability.
Slok concluded that the longer-term economic significance of AI would depend on whether companies beyond the largest technology groups can convert adoption into sustained improvements in financial performance.
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