The Surprising Link Between AI, Jobs and 3 BIG Dividends (up to 8.5%)

Key Points

• AI-driven “growth without hiring” is already boosting corporate profits and setting up strong income opportunities through dividends.
• Three closed-end funds—Columbia Seligman Premium Technology Growth (STK), Nuveen NASDAQ 100 Dynamic Overwrite (QQQX) and Gabelli Dividend & Income (GDV)—offer yields up to 8.5% with portfolios of AI providers and integrators.
• These CEFs trade at meaningful discounts to net asset value (or low premiums), providing potential capital gains as discounts narrow alongside attractive dividend payouts.
• The Income Calendar tool tracks payouts, ex-dividend and earnings dates for these funds, helping investors plan and maximize their dividend income.

Still wondering if AI will replace human workers? Well, you can stop. Because it’s already happening—and boosting corporate profits as it does.

That’s tough news for workers, of course. But there’s a silver lining for those of us investing for dividends. Because the “growth-without-hiring” trend AI has touched off is setting up one of the strongest income opportunities I’ve seen in years. (I’ll name three AI plays yielding up to 8.5% below.)

Wait, AI is setting the stage for big dividends?

I know. AI is known for a lot of things—many of which have been, er, less than helpful, such as infringing on copyrights and forcing McNuggets on pleading McDonald’s (MCD) drive-thru customers.

But dividends? Most people will tell you that AI stocks are a dividend desert. They’re not exactly wrong. NVIDIA (NVDA), Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOGL) and Meta Platforms (META) pay somewhere between nothing and almost nothing.

But we contrarians know to look deeper. For starters, the real AI magic isn’t in chatbots like ChatGPT. That’s surface-level stuff.

It’s in applications, like the FedEx (FDX) Surround system, which uses AI to monitor and shift, if necessary, time-sensitive shipments.

It’s in Meta’s recent proposal to use AI to run entire ad campaigns (including creative) based on an image of a client’s product and a budget. That could let smaller businesses access agency-level marketing, boosting their profits (and Meta’s, of course!).

Tech (Once Again) Points the Way for Other Sectors

As we mentioned earlier, yes, these changes will result in fewer hires. That’s already showing up in the numbers: Over the past year, Meta, for example, has raised revenues by 22% while only hiring 10% more people.

Alphabet grew revenues by 14% without any net new hires. Sure, NVIDIA did grow headcount by 13%, but for good reason—sales exploded by 126%! Microsoft, meantime, saw 16% revenue growth on just a 3% headcount increase:

Tech firms are the thin edge of the wedge here. Other companies are going this way, too. This is where dividends come in because we can easily buy this trend through closed-end funds (CEFs) that:

1. Pay big dividends (of course)!
2. Offer big discounts to net asset value (NAV, or the value of their underlying portfolios) and …
3. Have portfolios sporting AI providers and AI integrators.

Here are three you can blend to get this sweet income (and gain!) setup. We’ll start with a “pure” tech fund and move through to one focused more on AI users than providers.

“Growth-Without-Hiring” Dividend #1

The Columbia Seligman Premium Technology Growth Fund (STK) focuses on tech stocks, with Broadcom (AVGO), Microsoft, NVIDIA, Alphabet and Apple (AAPL) among its top holdings. STK also holds Visa (V) and fuel-cell-maker Bloom Energy (BE). Let’s call those “tech-adjacent.”

STK sells call options on part of its portfolio, which generates extra income to support its 6.3% dividend. This strategy works well with tech stocks, as they tend to be more volatile. Moreover, portfolio manager Paul Wick has 38 years of experience and it shows: In the last five years STK’s total return has outpaced the NASDAQ, which we all know has been on a tear:

STK Outruns the NASDAQ

One thing to remember is that STK is on investors’ radar, so it trades at a premium to NAV. But that premium is well below the peaks it’s hit in recent years, making STK something of a bargain in disguise:

STK’s Hidden Discount

That premium could turn some folks who don’t know STK’s history away, providing an opportunity to step in.

“Growth-Without-Hiring” Dividend #2 

The Nuveen NASDAQ 100 Dynamic Overwrite Fund (QQQX), as the name says, holds NASDAQ stocks. But unlike index funds, it pays a big dividend: 8.5%. Like STK, QQQX fuels its payout, in part, through option sales.

QQQX’s portfolio of NASDAQ stocks includes the tech kingpins, plus firms like travel site operator Booking Holdings (BKG) that also benefit from “growth without hiring.” The fund’s 5.7% discount gives us another tailwind as it narrows and (likely, in my view) flips to a premium—something it’s long overdue for:

QQQX’s Discount Has Momentum

Now let’s add more “tech-adjacent” holdings with …

“Growth-Without-Hiring” Dividend #3

The Gabelli Dividend & Income Trust (GDV) rounds out our trio with a focus on innovators from across the economy—particularly finance stocks—set to cash in as they integrate AI into their businesses. Top holdings include Mastercard (MA), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and American Express (AXP).

GDV yields 6.5% and is the steadiest payer of the bunch, with a payout that hasn’t been cut since the 2009 financial crisis. The fund’s discount has been stuck in double digits in recent years, but it has been narrowing lately:

GDV’s Discount (Finally) Heads North

I expect that discount to keep shrinking as AI optimizes sectors like finance. That would slingshot the fund’s price higher, adding gains to that 6.5% payout.

Now that we’ve covered three ways to play AI’s productivity boost for big dividends, I want to show you the best part: We’ve built a specialized tool that helps you track every penny these funds (and indeed pretty well all US income stocks and funds) pay.

Know What You’re Getting Paid—and When—With Income Calendar

Here at Contrarian Outlook, we’ve tried many different dividend-projection tools, and we didn’t find any we liked. So we created our own—exactly how we want it. Let’s walk through this handy tool, using the three CEFs we just discussed.

Let’s say we invest $100,000 in each one. Income Calendar tells us, instantly, what we can expect in payouts every month:

Source: Income Calendar

As you can see, with just these three buys, we’ve got dividends ranging from $553.84 in a month up to $2,680.16, and a total of $21,422.86 in the year. That’s a rich 7.1% yield. (Bear in mind, too, that to be extra cautious, we don’t project dividend growth, so our payouts could end up higher.)

You can get breakdowns by stock, plus a month-by-month calendar giving you a heads-up on earnings dates, ex-dividend dates and other key times for each of your holdings. Here’s what these three funds are set to pay in July 2025, for example:

Source: Income Calendar

Here we can see our projected pay dates, the amount we can expect, as well as ex-dividend dates (the dates before which we need to be “in” to get the next payout) and even market holidays.

We also get a heads-up on when our stocks are due to report earnings—though there are none for our three funds in July (understandable, since they’re all CEFs).

There’s more, too, like real-time email alerts every time a dividend drops into our account, a “week-ahead” summary saying how much we’ll get paid and when, a tool that tells us our “yield on cost” (so we can see the “true” yield on each of our stocks, based on the timing of our original buy) and more.

At the end of the day, the best way for you to get to know Income Calendar is to try it—and I want to invite you to do so with no risk and no obligation whatsoever. Click here and I’ll tell you more about this powerful dividend planner and give you the opportunity to “road test” it. I’m sure you’ll love it.