AI delivers ‘zero financial payoff’ to most companies, Apollo economist says
- ID
- 39284
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 26 Oct 2026, 12:57 AM
- Fetched
- 26 Oct 2026, 1:04 AM
- Provider
- TechCrunch
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/25/ai-delivers-zero-financial-payoff-to-most-companies-according-to-apollo-economist/
- Source URL
- https://techcrunch.com/feed/
Summary
- Score
- 6.0
- Created
- 26 Oct 2026, 1:04 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- startup_foundersai_ml_learnersdevelopersvibe_coders
What happened
Apollo Global Management chief economist Torsten Slok published a note arguing that AI has produced "zero financial payoff" outside the tech industry, pointing at the "S&P 493" — the S&P 500 minus Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla — where profit margins and revenue per worker look flat. Slok's argument is that cheap intelligence doesn't automatically convert into revenue growth or margin, because "AI may be a great calculator, but in business, intelligence is mostly judgment," and AI doesn't carry accountability, trust, culture or ethical trade-offs. TechCrunch notes the brief cites no methodology or magnitudes, only that other recent studies also find no significant productivity gains yet.
Why it matters
If this framing spreads, the buyers you pitch will stop accepting 'we use AI' as a value story and start asking for margin or revenue-per-worker evidence — so instrument your AI feature against one of those two numbers now, not against adoption or usage counts. The flip side is a positioning opening: Slok's own list of what AI lacks (accountability, trust, unwritten rules, trade-offs) is where a product can differentiate, and it's a sharper pitch than generic 'AI-powered'. Treat the claim as contested, though — the note gives no data or industry breakdown, so don't restructure your roadmap on it.
Discussion angle
Slok says intelligence is mostly judgment — so which single metric in your product would you put in front of a skeptical buyer to prove AI moved margin or revenue per worker this quarter, and would it survive scrutiny?