AI 对多数企业零财务回报
论证要点
- Apollo 首席经济学家 Torsten Slok 聚焦标普 493（标普500剔除七大科技巨头），发现其利润率和人均营收持平，没有证据表明 AI 提升了生产率。
- Slok 认为，尽管 AI 投资巨大、炒作广泛，但该技术对科技行业以外的美国企业带来了零财务回报。
- 对于非科技公司只是落后于科技巨头的观点，Slok 表示怀疑，认为企业很难将日益廉价的智能转化为更高的营收增长和利润率。
- Slok 指出，AI 可能是一个伟大的计算器，但在商业中，智能主要是判断力；AI 不理解问责、信任、文化、潜规则、伦理权衡或公平，而这些塑造声誉风险并最终驱动营收增长和利润率。
- 近期多项研究也发现，AI 尚未带来显著的生产率提升。
对实践的启示
做 AI 应用需警惕：技术能力不等于商业价值，尤其非科技企业。应优先解决判断力、信任和问责等软性瓶颈，而非盲目投资算力或模型。
原文摘引
Despite massive investments and widespread hype around artificial intelligence, the technology has delivered zero financial payoff to corporate America outside of tech.
AI may be a great calculator, but in business, intelligence is mostly judgment.
AI does not understand accountability, trust, culture, unwritten rules, ethical trade-offs or fairness, all of which shape reputational risk and ultimately drive revenue growth and profit margins.
▸ 展开原文全文（6 段，抓取自 TechCrunch AI）
AI hasn’t benefited the bottom line of any big corporations outside the tech industry, according to a note recently published by the chief economist at Apollo Global Management (the private equity giant that used to own TechCrunch).
Apollo’s Torsten Slok focuses on what he calls the S&P 493 — the S&P 500, minus Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla — finding that profit margins and revenue per worker appear to be flat, with no evidence that AI is improving productivity.
“Despite massive investments and widespread hype around artificial intelligence, the technology has delivered zero financial payoff to corporate America outside of tech,” Slok said.
Is this simply a matter of non-tech companies lagging behind the tech giants? Slok sounded skeptical, arguing that it will be tough for corporate America to “turn increasingly cheap intelligence into higher revenue growth and higher profit margins.”
“AI may be a great calculator, but in business, intelligence is mostly judgment,” he wrote, later adding, “AI does not understand accountability, trust, culture, unwritten rules, ethical trade-offs or fairness, all of which shape reputational risk and ultimately drive revenue growth and profit margins.”
Recent studies have also found that AI has yet to deliver significant productivity gains.