Building wealth is getting harder for ordinary people, and AI is expected to make the gap worse — bad news for workers, good news for shareholders.

• Wealth-building is expected to keep getting harder for the average person through 2026.
• AI only pays off for the small group at the very top who know how to use it well.
• Companies, not workers, are set to capture almost all the profit from AI.
• Shareholders come out ahead while jobs and paychecks get squeezed.

Outlook: Expect the gap between people who own stocks and people who work for a living to keep widening as AI profits flow to companies.