slack

But while stocks without as much exposure to AI had, at one point, started to pick up the slack, the divergence between the market’s winners and losers has been growing again recently.

Recent evidence points to building slack in the economy, and the latest CPI data were promising.

As a Journal headline announced last week, “Companies Bet They Can Grow Without Hiring,” in part because of employers’ expectation that AI will pick up the slack and automate more processes.

Spare capacity, or slack, can exert downward pressure on prices, and squeeze corporate profit margins.

Part of that thinking is the belief that artificial intelligence will be used to pick up some of the slack and automate more processes.