Something crucial is happening in AI—just as the situation in Iran pulls attention the other way.
More experts—and more importantly, more data—is pointing to something we’ve been arguing at CEF Insider all along: AI is a productivity “unlock” that will slash corporate costs and boost growth.
Six months ago, most people worried that AI would be at best a disappointment and at worst a bubble. Now the data is starting to tell us something else: It’s poised to drive profits higher.
But because of the Iran situation, this shift isn’t getting the attention it deserves. That’s handing us a chance to get ahead of the curve as AI bears give way to AI bulls. Our vehicle? A 14.9%-discounted CEF kicking out a hefty 9.3% dividend.
The AI “Bulls” Start to Run
I say this, ironically, as another AI-bubble warning rolls out, this time from Richard Bernstein, CIO of Richard Bernstein Advisors, who oversees about $19 billion in assets. In an April 4 Business Insider article, Bernstein said he’s concerned investors could be facing a “lost decade.”
The reasons are familiar: Stocks are overpriced, the market is highly concentrated in tech, and AI is a bubble.
One of the first warnings along these lines came from Goldman Sachs in mid-2024, stating that generative AI was simply “too much spend, too little benefit.”
This view is already on the way out.
Goldman itself, for example, is now much more bullish. In a March 6 report, one of its US software analysts said she “expects AI to expand the software market” and generally lower the cost of software, benefiting the economy more broadly.
That follows a growing number of other reports, like one PwC issued last summer showing a fourfold productivity gain from AI. And another from MIT, released on April 1, forecasting that AI will be able to complete text-based tasks with success rates of 80% to 95% by 2029.
We’ve got some “real world” evidence coming in now, too. Like a March 10 announcement from Bank of America (BAC) that its AI tool, “Erica,” had logged 30 billion client interactions, including in areas like personal financial planning and payments.
All of these numbers suggest AI-driven productivity gains are more likely than not to be worth the cash that’s gone into this tech.
Janus Henderson, which, in an ironic twist, closed its purchase of the bearish Bernstein’s firm in January, is also in the bullish camp. Janus portfolio manager Denny Fish, who oversees the Janus Henderson Global Artificial Intelligence ETF (JHAI), recently said: “We believe artificial intelligence could be the greatest productivity booster since the Industrial Revolution, and the biggest economic multiplier in history.”
I’m bringing all of this up now because, as I mentioned off the top, it shows the mainstream view is finally lining up with our take on AI.
If you’re a CEF Insider member, you may recall that in the February 2026 issue, I wrote: “From my perspective, the best way to think about AI is as another increase in the economic value of technology, like the smartphone, the internet and the PC before it.
Remember, too, that we were among the first in on AI, buying the AllianzGI Artificial Intelligence & Tech Opportunities Fund (AIO) back in September 2020. Back then, AIO held blue chip techs (and future AI giants) Microsoft (MSFT) and Amazon.com (AMZN), as well as beneficiaries of AI, like insurer UnitedHealth Group (UNH).
Our AIO buy went on to deliver a tidy 23% return for us over the next three years, with a lot of that coming as dividend cash, thanks to the 6.4% dividend AIO sported back then. And now, thanks to the recent market volatility, we have a “second chance” to buy our favorite high-yield CEFs at a discount.
This time we’re focusing on higher-yielding plays than AIO, our 2020 buy. Consider the BlackRock Technology and Private Equity Term Trust (BTX), a CEF Insider holding yielding 9.3% and trading at that 14.9% discount to NAV.
What’s more, that discount has widened from the roughly 5% markdown this five-year-old fund sported just last August, before AI bubble fears hit a crescendo in the fall:
BTX’s Overdone Discount
And as you can see, BTX’s discount has stayed on the mat as volatility ticked up. That’s setting up this fund—which owns both privately held AI names, like Anthropic, and well-known blue chips, like NVIDIA (NVDA)—for “snap-back” gains as its discount rebounds.
Meantime, BTX’s “15%-off” sale gets us in on companies like Anthropic, maker of the Claude AI chatbot, which are off-limits to most investors, as well as big caps that have been marked down in the last few weeks. And, of course, these stocks’ discounts come on top of the 14.9% discount we’re getting on BTX itself.
As more AI-driven productivity gains show up in earnings, we’ll likely see both of those discounts—on the stocks in BTX’s portfolio and the 14.9% markdown on BTX itself—shrink. That could happen fast, , making this a discount to pounce on today.
These 4 Funds Are My Top AI Bargains Now (Yields Up to 9.6%)
BTX is just the start of our plan to “front run” AI’s next surge.
We’re also buying 4 other funds that focus not only on tech stocks, but on the firms poised to supercharge their businesses with AI, too.
Manufacturers. Insurers. Healthcare firms.
These quiet moneymakers will be the biggest winners in AI’s next wave. And they’re all in these 4 funds’ portfolios.
Here’s something else you should know about this AI “4-pack”: They pay huge dividends—all the way up to 9.6%. And the Iran War has made each of them coiled springs—oversold bargains poised to “snap back” when markets inevitably calm, taking these funds’ prices with them.
The time to buy them is now, before that happens. Click here and I’ll introduce you to each of these 4 “AI-powered” dividends and give you a free Special Report revealing their names and tickers.