Following ChatGPT blindly undoubtedly isn’t really helpful, particularly with regards to making funding choices. Nonetheless, it may be a great tool when trying to find shares to purchase. With this in thoughts, I requested it for the three greatest high-yielding dividend shares within the UK.

Sky-high earnings

The primary identify spewed out was life insurance coverage and pensions specialist Phoenix Group (LSE: PHNX). And it’s not exhausting to see why.

Proper now, the FTSE 100-listed firm’s shares yield a monster 8.8% for 2025. By comparability, the yield of a fund that tracks the index as a complete is 3.4%.

Worryingly, the AI bot claimed the yield was 11.1%. However this doesn’t appear to have taken under consideration the great transfer within the share price since April, due partly to the corporate surpassing analyst expectations on money era and adjusted working revenue in its 2024 outcomes. As said, it’s greatest to not take all the things ChatGPT says as gospel.

Phoenix’s complete dividend has been persistently hiked for quite a few years now — all the time an incredible signal. Even so, progress has lagged inflation at round 2%-3%. The area by which it operates can also be very aggressive.

Nonetheless, I can consider worse picks to get the ball rolling.

Large money returns

Second on ChatGPT’s listing was funding supervisor M&G (LSE: MNG). At 9.2%, its forecast dividend yield is even larger!

Like its top-tier peer, this eye-popping return is much more spectacular contemplating the share price has solely been getting in the appropriate route in latest weeks.

It could appear the market likes all of the cost-cutting occurring right here. A complete of £230m is predicted to be saved by the top of 2025. At this time’s (30 Could) information of a strategic partnership with Japanese life insurer Dai-Ichi Life — which is able to contain the latter taking a 15% stake in M&G — has additionally gone down nicely.

However this, M&G’s efficiency has been quite erratic because it demerged from Prudential six years in the past. Any whiff of a protracted downturn in markets might cut back the charges it receives. The continued shift by many retail buyers into low-cost passive funds might also hinder income progress and the sustainability of dividends. The bot was quiet on these very actual dangers.

Dividend hero

Rounding of our trio was British American Tobacco (LSE: BATS). As ChatGPT highlighted, it boasts an enviable report of persistently elevating its annual dividend. This absolutely makes it an incredible choice for “a dependable earnings stream“, proper?

Nicely, skilled Fools will know that these funds weren’t (and by no means could be) assured. Spreading cash round stays prudent, particularly as tobacco gross sales have been steadily declining in lots of nations.

For its half, the agency has been transitioning to reduced-risk merchandise to assist earnings and defend these coveted money handouts (the yield sits at 7.4%). The truth that income from Smokeless gadgets represented 17.5% of complete income in 2024 exhibits there’s quite a lot of room left to develop. Not like the opposite shares talked about, the £73bn cap solely has to scrap it out with just a few different heavy-hitters too.

Once more, I don’t suppose ChatGPT has dropped a clanger right here. However the persistent risk of (extra) regulation — which wasn’t highlighted — means suggests earnings buyers ought to solely be utilizing the bot’s advice as a springboard for additional research.