Morgan Stanley Finds Measurable AI Gains at 44% of S&P 500 Firms

Morgan Stanley found measurable artificial intelligence benefits at 44% of S&P 500 companies, up from 32% a year earlier, indicating that reported gains now span nearly half the index.

The bank’s review covered about 18,000 corporate transcripts. Twenty-six percent of companies tied AI to lower costs or new revenue, compared with 16% a year earlier. Productivity was the most frequently cited benefit, mentioned by 32% of companies.

Financials led the sector breakdown, with 67% of companies reporting tangible improvements. Communication services followed at 61%, and information technology came in at 51%.

AI-related expenses also appeared more often. The share of S&P 500 companies mentioning those costs rose to 22% from 8% over the past 12 months. Token, inference and application programming interface (API) charges made up the largest expense category at 51%, ahead of general computing and infrastructure.

Morgan Stanley named 28 companies that consistently cited quantifiable AI benefits and had at least 10% upside to the bank’s price targets. Examples included Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Visa, American Express, Citigroup, eBay, UnitedHealth Group, Procter & Gamble, GE Aerospace and Blackstone.

Companies in the top 10% for frequency of quantifiable AI-benefit mentions had forward earnings ahead of the broader S&P 500 on a sector-neutral basis.