McKinsey: AI Is Making Workers Richer, Not Companies

If individual workers are capturing productivity gains from AI while organizations aren't, that's a structural problem for corporate margins and leverage—and a rare tailwind for wage growth. This inverts the typical tech adoption pattern where efficiency gains flow to capital, not labor. Either AI tools are genuinely easier for employees to monetize independently, or companies haven't yet figured out how to extract that value, creating a window where workers have actual bargaining power. The tension matters for consumer spending: workers with real income gains spend differently than companies squeezing margins.