You’d be hard pressed to find a company out there that’s not using some form of AI at this point. In just a few years, tech leaders say the same will be true of quantum computing.
“It’s equivalent to the exact thing that you’re seeing with classical computing and AI, but it’s going to happen at a much larger scale,” Jay Gambetta, the vice president in charge of IBM’s quantum initiative, told Business Insider.
Researchers are optimistic about coming breakthroughs in quantum computing, a field that leverages quantum physics and mechanics to solve complex problems faster than is possible using classical computers.
When the final engineering problems are solved and the technology scales up, quantum tech promises to revolutionize medicine, data privacy, and more.
Industry insiders say it’s just a matter of time before quantum computing changes the tech landscape as much as artificial intelligence has, so corporate leaders had better start getting ready.
“If you’re not paying attention and you’re not dedicating people to quantum computing, I think it’s probably already too late,” Gambetta said.
‘Future-proof’ computing is hybrid
AI and quantum computing are not interchangeable tools — each has its own very different strengths. Artificial intelligence is especially good at searching through existing data to make predictions about future outcomes, and is helpful in areas like image recognition, e-commerce recommendation engines, and fraud detection.
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A utility-scale quantum computer doesn’t predict using data from the past, Stratton Sclavos, PsiQuantum’s Chief Business Officer, told Business Insider. Instead, it calculates the exact answer from first principles, from scratch, “to solve problems that no conventional computer or AI will ever be able to solve.”
“If you’re currently using or ramping up your use of AI, keep going,” Sclavos said. But, he said, corporate leaders should be “preparing now for how quantum computing will transform how your business operates.”
Aseem Datar, Microsoft’s vice president of product innovation, strategic missions, and technologies, told Business Insider that, given the rapid pace of innovation, “it’s critical that organizations start exploring, identifying, and building an application road map that sets them up for success in a quantum future.”
For instance, Microsoft recently released Discovery, an agentic AI platform for scientific research and development built on top of its Azure cloud computing program. Datar said the technology was designed to be as “future-proof” as possible so that when quantum technology advances, it will be readily incorporated into the existing technology, and users “will get the benefits of quantum underneath the platform.”
While Microsoft Discovery is geared toward the scientific community, Datar said future-looking tech solutions across industries will share similar characteristics. Hybrid computing integration, which combines the strengths of classical computing power with those of quantum systems, is particularly important, he said, so corporate leaders don’t have to rip and replace their systems once quantum technology reaches its potential.
Murray Thom, D-Wave’s vice president of quantum technology evangelism, agreed, telling Business Insider: “Hybrid quantum-classical solutions are what’s going to give them the resiliency that they’re looking for in their businesses.”
Thom added that organizations need to be aware of and ready for the speed of change that the tech landscape will undergo as quantum technology scales up, “so that they can take advantage of the technology and not be at a competitive disadvantage if they miss what the newest capabilities are.”
“When you’re evaluating a new technology, you have to keep in mind that there’s the information you have about what’s possible today, and then there’s what I call a cone of uncertainty that projects into the future,” Thom said. “You’re looking to gain information that allows you to narrow that cone of uncertainty so that you can make better business decisions about what to do today to take advantage of that in the future — and particularly in a way that gives you robustness to those future outcomes.”
‘The toothpaste is not going back in the tube.’
It’s not just private industry that’s getting ready for the quantum revolution. Tim Kelly, the mayor of Chattanooga, Tennessee, told Business Insider he’s investing heavily in his city’s ability to lean into a quantum future, with hopes it can become a hot spot for development of the technology.
“We intend to try to make the most of it from an economic development perspective,” Kelly said. “I think we’re right at the leading edge of this, and the toothpaste is not going back in the tube, and so even though it’s very early innings yet, this will change the world in a very fundamental way.”
Other cities, including Chicago, Boston, and Boulder, Colorado, are also investing in quantum research and industrial hubs to ensure they can capitalize on the economic growth the burgeoning industry is expected to usher in.
As the quantum snowball keeps rolling downhill for both the public and private sectors, Niccolo de Masi, CEO of IonQ, told Business Insider that early adopters will gain a massive advantage if they start now to identify the best use cases for their industries, developing and optimizing hybrid algorithms ahead of time so they’re ready when the first utility-scale quantum computers turn on.
Those that don’t start now, he said, risk becoming obsolete.
“This might sound extreme, but as the joke always goes, CEOs have made plenty of decisions over the past 10,000 years that they’ve gotten fired for — for making the wrong decision,” de Masi said. “I think CEOs are going to get fired if they’re not up on the quantum revolution in a lot of industries, because they’re just going to be so far behind.”
