FAQQ: Frequently Asked Quantum Questions FAQQ: Frequently Asked Quantum Questions

Professor Stephen Bartlett, our Quantum opportunities sprint leader, fields some common queries about quantum’s role in a business and what upskilling in this area looks like.

I’m not a physicist. In fact, I wasn’t very good at science in high school. How much do I actually need to understand to make good decisions about quantum?

You don't need a physics degree, but you do need enough literacy to ask the right questions. The sprint isn’t a deep dive into the underlying science. It’s built specifically for executives who need to understand what quantum can and can’t do, which business problems it can and can’t solve, and what the competitive landscape looks like.

The first governance challenge with quantum isn’t the technology itself—it’s the knowledge gap. Same goes for AI. If you don’t understand the fundamentals of the tech, you can’t make informed decisions about risk or opportunity. So, this sprint gives you the frameworks and language to engage meaningfully with your board, your technology teams, and your vendors.

Is quantum computing actually relevant to my business right now or can I just watch and wait?

Watching and waiting will mean getting left behind. Quantum computing has moved from a theoretical research project to a commercial reality this decade. In 2019, Google demonstrated a quantum computer performing a calculation that would take the world’s fastest supercomputer over 10,000 years. Since then, IBM, Microsoft, Google, and a wave of well-funded startups have invested billions in scaling the technology.

Companies across logistics, finance, energy and healthcare are already running proof-of-concept experiments on cloud-based quantum platforms. The organisations that are experimenting now are building the skills and workflows to capitalise on quantum advantage when it arrives at scale. Those that wait will be playing catch-up. And that tends to be expensive.

You mentioned AI earlier. Is AI related to quantum at all?

They’re related, and increasingly intertwined. The sprint builds directly on the strategic and governance mindset that the AI fluency sprint develops—that habit of asking: “How does my organisation create value, and where could this technology accelerate or disrupt that?”

Quantum extends that conversation in two important directions. First, it’s likely to transform the computational problems that AI relies on, including optimisation, network management, logistics, and drug discovery. Second, and more urgently, quantum computers will eventually break the encryption that protects your data, your customers, and your IP. Not to get too doom and gloom, but the “Harvest Now, Decrypt Later” threat is real and active today: state actors are collecting encrypted data now and betting they'll be able to decrypt it once quantum computers are powerful enough. Whether your organisation uses a quantum computer or not, that’s a risk you need to be aware of and act on.

I want spoilers. Can you tell me some of the opportunities and risks of quantum for a business?

The opportunities span nearly every sector. In logistics and finance, quantum offers the prospect of solving optimisation problems—routing, scheduling, portfolio construction—at a scale and speed that today’s computers cannot match. In healthcare and pharmaceuticals, quantum computing is expected to accelerate drug discovery. In energy, firms like E.ON are already using quantum algorithms to manage grid complexity and risk.

On the risk side, the most immediate and serious concern is cryptographic security. As I mentioned, current encryption standards will be broken by future quantum computers, which means any sensitive data with a long shelf life—patient records, legal documents, financial data—is potentially vulnerable.

The sprint isn’t just theory. We give leaders a practical framework, called SPIN, for mapping both the opportunities and the risks specific to their organisation, and for building a governance roadmap proportionate to their exposure.

Close the readiness gap. Register now for the Quantum opportunities sprint.