This week's chart from Apollo shows a split between the companies already converting AI and scale into financial performance, and the rest of the market.
Revenue per employee is rising for the Magnificent 7 and falling for the Russell 2000. Profit margins are also improving for the Magnificent 7, while the rest of the S&P 500 looks broadly flat.
That does not mean AI is having no effect outside big tech. It means the effect is not yet easy to see in revenue per employee or margins. For a company with $20 billion of revenue and 100,000 employees, a 5% improvement in revenue per employee would require roughly $1 billion of new AI-related revenue. Very few large firms can create, launch and scale that in a few years.
The cost case is easier. AI can reduce support work, speed up analysis, cut rework, lower outsourcing costs, or let teams handle more demand without hiring. Those gains may be real before they become visible in top-line productivity measures.
For now, AI appears to reward companies with scale, distribution, data, infrastructure and strong balance sheets. For everyone else the path to productivity may be slower.