---
title: "\"AI paid off zero\": one economist's note treated as a verdict"
url: https://media.yoora.tech/en/articles/ai-zero-payoff-apollo-economist-note-limits
lang: en
published: 2026-10-26T07:48:58+00:00
updated: 2026-10-26T07:48:58+00:00
section: "Hype check"
description: "The \"zero payoff\" headline rests on a short note by one economist with no figures. We look at what it proves and what it does not."
---

# "AI paid off zero": one economist's note treated as a verdict

## The claim

TechCrunch reports that AI has delivered a "zero financial payoff" to most companies. The quote comes from Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok, and in the headline it reads like an established fact.

## What is actually there

Slok looked at the "S&P 493," the S&P 500 without Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla. Profit margins and revenue per worker in that group look flat, and he sees no sign of a productivity boost. The article gives no specific figures: no margin levels, no revenue per employee, no comparison period.

## Why the headline overreaches

First, flat margins do not prove there is no effect. If costs, prices and competition shift at the same time, the contribution of one technology disappears in an average. Second, rollouts in large companies are slow and part of the benefit arrives late. Slok himself doubts the "laggards" explanation, yet the piece shows no data against it. Third, lumping everyone outside seven tech giants into "corporate America" is crude: banks, retailers and manufacturers adopt at very different speeds.

## Bottom line

This is the opinion of one economist at a firm with its own investment positions, not a study with calculations. His point deserves attention, but "zero payoff" is too loud a phrase for something not backed by numbers.