Whether enterprise AI can produce measurable financial returns remains an open question. Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo Global Management, says there is not yet evidence that AI has improved the financial performance of large companies outside the technology sector.
S&P 493 Metrics Show No Clear Lift
Slok uses “S&P 493” to refer to the S&P 500 excluding Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla. In his assessment, profit margins and revenue per worker for this group appear broadly flat, with no evidence so far that AI has raised productivity.
Enterprise AI Returns Depend on Business Judgment
This assessment does not prove that AI has no value in every company; it says that investment and enthusiasm have not yet translated into broadly visible financial gains. Slok argues that cheaper access to intelligence does not automatically create faster revenue growth or higher margins. Business decisions also involve accountability, trust, culture, ethical trade-offs and fairness.
The report also notes that recent studies have yet to find significant productivity gains. The supplied account does not provide the analysis’s precise time period, methodological details or industry-by-industry data, so it cannot establish that AI will never generate returns. The key question is whether companies can integrate these tools into real workflows and turn efficiency improvements into measurable business results.