Quantum Computing Shifts Business Forward

It’s Time to Start Planning for Quantum Computing

Even though quantum computing is still in its infancy, the time is now for corporations to start making plans on how they will implement it and what, if anything, they will use it for. This was the case made by William Oliver, professor of physics, electrical engineering and computer science and director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Quantum Engineering, during a presentation at MIT in December 2025. 

“Quantum computing capabilities are accelerating. Although we generally do not have commercially relevant ones yet, we are now seeing early demonstrations of quantum error correction and its scaling,” Oliver says. “It’s too early to bet the farm, but I believe it would be wise to understand how future quantum computers will affect a company’s bottom line. What problems do I have that are hard for me on a conventional computer? Of those, which ones could a quantum computer solve?” 

One reason quantum projects remain in an experimental phase is that there are still issues to work out with quantum processors; most significantly, error rates that are as high as 1 in 1,000 quantum operations, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology. 

“The focus now is to build larger-scale machines with fewer errors,” says Oliver. “This means we need to implement quantum error correction protocols and scale the size of our quantum computers to enable us to run sufficiently sophisticated algorithms at a commercially relevant scale.” While it is hard to pinpoint when exactly that might happen, he says, “once we have quantum error correction at scale, I do believe we will start to see commercial quantum advantage.” 

READ MORE: Follow this roadmap to be ready for post-quantum security.

Quantum Computing Will Need Classic Computing And AI

When that time comes, what would a quantum computing installation look like? According to Oliver, quantum systems will almost certainly be used together with classic computing installations: “Quantum computers, as we understand them today, will run side by side with large-scale conventional computers, which we’ll need to program the quantum computer, control the quantum computer, assist with the quantum error correction and more.” 

Artificial intelligence will help with that stabilization, Oliver explains. Many research groups today use AI to build and maintain the “logical qubits” that help with error correction, with Google AI being one of the major proponents of its use. “‘AI for quantum’ is already being used to help calibrate and control quantum systems,” Oliver says. 

How does an organization prepare for adding quantum computing to its plans? The first thing to do is what a lot of companies, such as those cited above, are already doing: figure out a use case. An article in Quantum Insider lays out eight potential use cases, from scientific and financial to logistics and cryptography. “The strongest candidates tend to involve solution spaces that grow exponentially with problem size,” writes researcher Mohib Ur Rehman. But, he warns, quantum computing still hasn’t demonstrated that it can beat classic computing in many cases. “The vast majority of computing workloads are expected to remain on classical systems for the foreseeable future.” 

A company may want to consider using Quantum as a Service (QaaS) as an initial foray into the quantum space. IBM is among the companies already offering cloud-based quantum computing and a program stack, Qiskit, that works with its Nighthawk quantum processors. Data center infrastructure will also have to be reconsidered, given the speed and power requirements of quantum, though there is evidence that quantum systems will use less power than traditional high-performance computers. 

Companies will also need to decide whether to start training their IT staffs on quantum concepts now. There are ways to get ready for the coming changes without having to dive into the expense of either purchasing quantum systems or using QaaS. For instance, Quantum-inspired algorithms designed for use with classical computer systems can get IT people at least accustomed to the quantum space ahead of an implementation. 

Quantum Computing Security Concerns

Perhaps the biggest item on enterprises’ to-do list in getting ready for the quantum era is to harden their existing defenses against quantum computers’ ability to shatter traditional encryption. Algorithms designed to crack current encryption protocols, such as Shor’s algorithm, have been around for decades, but systems are now closer than ever to being Shor-capable. In response, NIST has developed post-quantum encryption standards, which require hardware and software upgrades, and it is encouraging system administrators to transition to the new standards as soon as possible.  

“Even though we don’t have a Shor-capable quantum computer today, one could harvest data now and then decrypt it later when we do have such a performant quantum computer,” says MIT's Oliver. “If there is even a 10% chance of a Shor-capable machine in 2030, is that acceptable from your organization’s security posture? To most organizations, it is not. We need to switch to these new standards without delay.”