There's a plethora of structural changes affecting the economy and markets right now, from artificial intelligence to GLP-1 drugs to the early promise of quantum computing. So it isn't a surprise that when we asked investment advisors to name their favorite niche exchange-traded funds, they pointed to several that provide exposure to those big changes. ETFs offer a simple way to make targeted bets on those long-term shifts without having to identify individual winners. The picks, which those pros shared for this week's Barron's Advisor Big Q, might at the very least spice up a bland portfolio.

Brendon Dashiell, portfolio manager, investment research, Bogart Wealth: One thematic ETF we use is the First Trust Nasdaq Clean Edge Smart Grid Infrastructure Index Fund. It follows an index that invests in the updating of the electrical grid. That means electric metering devices, energy storage, software that's used for the electrical grid, that kind of stuff. There's a big secular tailwind in the need to invest in power generation and capacity in the U.S., in part to power AI data centers. We look at it as a derivative play on the AI trade. You gain exposure to some of that AI beta without direct exposure to those technology AI names, which are more concentrated in indexes.

We also like the Janus Henderson AAA CLO ETF. It's a shorter-duration income strategy that invests in floating-rate, higher-quality collateralized loan obligations. It's the highest-rated tranche for these mostly private loan pools. Historically the default rate is extremely low, and you're picking up a nice yield of close to 5% there relative to other short-duration, cash-like product. We use this for dry powder when we're making taxable decisions in our portfolio. If we decide to take some allocation out of our equities and we don't want to add duration to the portfolio, but we're looking to park it somewhere we can get a decent yield, we often use JAAA.

Stuart Katz, chief investment officer, Robertson Stephens: One thematic trend we like is quantum computing. The Defiance Quantum ETF provides passive exposure to companies operating in the quantum computing and machine learning space. It does come with higher volatility; it's a more speculative type of theme, as the reality is that quantum computing is currently in the green-shoot, phase-one stage. But we do believe in rapid technological change, and a natural extension over time will be exposure to quantum computing. So we want a fund that can track the hardware and services related to quantum computing or machine learning-the development and use of quantum computers or computing chips, superconducting materials, applications built on quantum computers, and everything related to the management of data.

Another strategy we like relates to infrastructure development. The Global X U.S. Infrastructure Development ETF provides passive exposure to companies that stand to benefit from a potential increase in infrastructure activity in the U.S., including those involved in the production of raw materials, heavy equipment, engineering, and construction. There's an interesting backdrop to this durable theme. The American Society of Civil Engineers not too long ago assigned a letter grade of C to the state of the U.S. infrastructure, highlighting the need for investment. And America is committed to improving its aging infrastructure-look at bills like the JOBS Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, the Chips and Science Act, all related to fund critical infrastructure projects. As the economy evolves, the infrastructure needs to evolve, and this strategy we believe helps capture this trend by investing in the companies that are part of the infrastructure theme across different sectors.

Jason Stephens, managing partner, Evertern Wealth: We have a pretty significant allocation in the Goldman Sachs ActiveBeta U.S. Large Cap Equity ETF. It has given us a dynamic allocation to the actual large-cap sector. They're averaging above-market rates of return but lower volatility than the overall market.

We've also had an allocation to the iShares TIPS Bond ETF for a little over a year. Obviously, people want to make sure inflation doesn't have a significant impact on their portfolio. This gives you an inflation offset at a fairly low cost. We actually have a little less allocation to fixed income now; we've been moving more into equities, including emerging markets and international. So we also like QUAL-the VanEck MSCI International Quality ETF. It focuses on the quality factor in the portfolio and is sector-neutral, which we like.

Michael Finnegan, chief investment officer, Prairie Wealth Advisors: I've been investing in a small group of sector ETFs built around a common theme of emerging secular technologies. The appeal is that as these technologies transform our world, there should be higher-than-market growth rates and expected returns over five to 10 years. One is the iShares AI Innovation and Tech Active ETF. A lot of us believe AI is going to change everything we do and how we do it. Owning the infrastructure that will facilitate that-the entire stack, from the chips to the compute to the memory-in an active ETF format is one theme that makes a lot of sense.

Another ETF I've invested in for some time is the Roundhill GLP 1 And Weight Loss ETF. The gets you exposure to the whole metabolic health GLP-1 industry. You've probably read the stats: In time we expect about one in four people to be on some synthetic form of this hormone, not only for managing obesity, but we've seen other amazing benefits as well. And with Medicare and Medicaid now beginning to step up and provide some cost support, the market for these drugs is going to be enormous. Most of the fund today is invested in what I call the molecule owners-Eli Lilly, Novo, Pfizer, Amgen. But in time, the benefits of GLP-1's are going to affect lots of other industries.

I couldn't quite get my mind around owning cryptocurrencies, but I'm fascinated with the blockchain technology itself. That's why I've owned an active ETF called the Amplify Blockchain Technology ETF [BLOK], which is a blockchain infrastructure play. I believe blockchain and distributed-ledger technologies are going to have large impacts on certain industries absent of the cryptocurrency-think about banking, finance, insurance, other types of companies. They are already using blockchain rails to improve processing of all kinds of financial information, transactional data, and so forth. The idea is to own the infrastructure and avoid some of the volatility of the underlying cryptocurrencies.

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