Apollo says AI has delivered 'zero financial payoff' outside the tech industry

Apollo Global Management’s economic analysis argues that the financial benefits of the AI boom are concentrated in large technology companies rather than spreading across the wider economy. Torsten Slok, Apollo’s chief economist, says mainstream companies increasingly treat spending on AI tokens as an operating cost that can squeeze margins, not as an engine of growth. The assessment challenges promises that AI will soon transform work and usher in broad prosperity, pointing instead to a gap between heavy investment in AI and measurable returns for most businesses.

Apollo compares revenue per employee, profit margins, and productivity growth. Since 2022, technology companies’ revenue per worker has climbed from about $550,000 to nearly $800,000, while the S&P 500’s non-tech companies have remained near $550,000, roughly unchanged for seven years. Tech profit margins have also risen, but margins elsewhere have stayed around 10%. Across the broader economy, productivity has not yet surged as AI advocates have predicted. Apollo’s central question is whether companies outside tech can convert increasingly cheap AI capabilities into faster revenue growth and stronger margins as models become more widely available; Slok warns that doing so may prove difficult.