AI is driving huge productivity gains for large companies while small companies get left behind

In this article

Artificial intelligence is widening the productivity gap between large and small companies, lifting up bigger firms that are able to effectively scale the technology and cut costs tie to human workers.

Large-cap companies are seeing steady AI-related productivity gains since the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT model in 2022 in terms of their real revenue per worker, according to Wells Fargo analysis. Small-cap names are witnessing a decline over the same period, meanwhile, the firm found.

″While productivity for the S&P 500 has soared 5.5% since ChatGPT, it’s down 12.3% for the Russell 2000,” Wells Fargo equity strategist Ohsung Kwon wrote in recent note to clients. “We see other examples of diverging trends in consumer, industrial, and financial markets.”

Breakthrough advancements in AI this year have led major corporations like Amazon to notably go all-in on the technology, finding ways to eliminate human roles that can be replaced by AI machines.