Artificial intelligence (AI) and defence have been the most demanded themes over the past year, but how to capture more emerging themes built on them, two senior index product managers discussed at the conference.

Defence, AI, automation, crypto mining and energy & power topped the list as the most wanted index themes for 2025, live poll results showed at the SRP Europe Conference 2026 on Tuesday (17 March).

We’ve seen this major shift from the digital space to the physical reality in terms of data centres, semiconductors and power supply - Vidushan Ragukaran

“AI is obviously a big theme,” said Vidushan Ragukaran (pictured), director, global equities and thematic indices at S&P Dow Jones Indices on a panel. “Over the last 12 months, we’ve seen this major shift from the digital space to the physical reality in terms of data centres, semiconductors and power supply.”

AI is the “left arm” of the theme driver in indices while geopolitical and macro environment constitutes the other, said the product manager for the American index provider.

Looking back the past two years, Ragukaran pointed to two ‘aha’ moments for themes – the advent of ChatGPT and President Trump’s threat to Nato for defence budget. “Where is it most likely that we see those types of aha moments taking space? It needs to be our heart. Almost something that the common man or woman can relate to.”

Left to right: Imene Mousa, RBC Capital Markets (moderator); Ladi Williams, STOXX; and Vidushan Ragukaran, S&P DJI

In Europe, defence sector particularly stands out after taking flight following the introduction of an €800 billion plan by the European Commission in early 2025, according to Ladi Williams, head of thematics and strategy index product management at STOXX.

“And that led a lot of investors to want to capitalise on the opportunity,” he said on the panel headlined ‘thematic universe II: up-and-coming’.

Since then, the Swizerland-headquartered index provider has launched half a dozen defence strategies for structured products.

Indices on precious metal like silver, lithium and copper have become high-flyers over the last year due to the macro uncertainty and their vital roles during the energy transition.

In the meantime, Williams and his team have sought to tap into the AI value chain through varying strategies, including the infrastructure featuring cloud computing and data centres, and the “adopters”, referring to companies that are expected to be main beneficiaries of AI usage.

At S&P DJI, the use of AI has enabled the firm to make improvements in scale and velocity when it comes to index design. Specifically, natural language processing (NLP) is used as a signal to address the scope of companies involved in a theme.

Left to right: Imene Mousa, RBC Capital Markets (moderator); Ladi Williams, STOXX; and Vidushan Ragukaran, S&P DJI

Williams at STOXX noted that AI is essentially a tool that augments what an index provider currently does and should not lead to intransparency. “The original objectives when it comes to creating a successful index still remain in place.”

He pointed to different sentiment around the usage citing the STOXX Global Quantum Computing Index that went live in September. The thematic index aims to select companies involved in the development and application of quantum computing technologies.

Some clients are more conservative and inquiry the index’s audit trail.

“There’s some clients who want us to incorporate AI by any means because from the distribution perspective, it gives them that angle to almost make the indexing futuristic,” said Williams.

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