An Amazon Proteus robot demonstrates autonomous navigation using barcodes on the floor during the “Delivering the Future” event at the Amazon Robotics Innovation Hub in Westboro, Massachusetts, USA, Thursday, November 10, 2022.
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Artificial intelligence is widening the productivity gap between large and small businesses, favoring larger companies that can effectively scale technology and reduce the cost of human workers.
Wells Fargo analysis shows that major companies have seen steady increases in AI-related productivity in terms of real revenue per employee since the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT model in 2022. The firm found that small-cap stocks declined over the same period.
“S&P 500 productivity has increased 5.5% since ChatGPT, while Russell 2000 productivity has declined 12.3%,” Wells Fargo equity strategist Oson Kwon wrote in a recent note to clients. “We see other examples of different trends in consumer, industrial and financial markets.”
Wells Fargo analysis comparing real earnings per worker between the Russell 2000 Index and the S&P 500 Index
wells fargo
This year’s breakthroughs in AI have introduced major companies such as: Amazon We are especially committed to technology and finding ways to eliminate human roles that can be replaced by AI machines.
performance of S&P500 versus russell 2000 Small-cap indexes reflect this divergence in productivity growth. Since ChatGPT’s launch in 2022, the broad market index is up 74%, while the Russell index is up only 39%.
America’s largest companies have been bringing AI tools internally over the past few years to improve productivity, supply chains, and in some cases reduce headcount. According to a World Economic Forum study published in early 2025, approximately 40% of companies worldwide expect to reduce the number of employees in roles whose tasks can be automated by AI over the next five years.
Layoffs are on the rise this year. Including some famous companies target, Amazon, meta, starbucks, oracle, microsoft and UPSannounced a significant reduction in the total number of employees. For Target, the cuts are historic. Amazon is expected to announce historic price cuts on Tuesday. While companies primarily cite operational streamlining efforts and growth strategies as reasons for job cuts, many are nodding to AI as part of the reason why human worker roles may be eliminated now or in the future.
As an example, Amazon is a leader in deploying robots across its facilities, which the e-commerce giant says is improving costs and delivery times. The New York Times reported this month that Amazon executives believe the company is on track to replace more than 500,000 jobs with robots, which they believe will save Amazon about 30 cents on each item it picks, packs and ships to customers. Morgan Stanley said Amazon’s robotics efforts could save the company $2 billion to $4 billion by 2027.
Klarna, which has been the most transparent about the impact of AI on its workforce, said it had reduced its workforce by about 40% due in part to its AI investments. CrowdStrike announced in May that it would cut 5% of its global workforce due to the efficiency of AI, saying the technology would “flatten the employment curve.” IBM’s CEO predicts that 30% of non-customer-facing roles will be eliminated by 2028, and told the Wall Street Journal earlier this year that AI chatbots will replace 200 human resources professionals, freeing up investment to hire more people in sales and programming departments.
Palo Alto Networks, walmart and mcdonalds CNBC previously reported that some companies are making significant use of AI in ways that analysts expect will improve profit margins.
A September survey of 5,000 small and medium-sized businesses in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia by Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Insights found that 68% of companies are integrating AI into their daily operations, and nearly two-thirds report improved productivity.
“The numbers don’t lie,” Wells Fargo’s Kwon said in the report.
