After the category defining moment of ChatGPT’s launch, the subsequent rush to AI tools has proved intense. On both sides of implementation and innovation, companies have dashed towards AI as a solution, many without knowing the problem. In certain cases, it’s felt half-baked – more than 50% of organizations have an AI leader, but nine in ten (88%) indicate their AI leader does not have the title of ‘Chief AI Officer’.
From this initial excitement phase, progressing to maturity in AI deployment becomes key, yet just 1% believe they are at maturity. This is the critical task – recalibration towards AI maturity could contribute a staggering $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030. At the AI Action Summit this year, Sundar Pichai stated AI is “the most profound shift of our lifetimes”. This is even “bigger than the shift to personal computing, or to mobile”. But in thinking about these patterns of change, it begs the million dollar question – what’s next after AI?
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New appetite
Spurred on by the success of AI-related innovation, there is an appetite in the tech sector for the next big thing. We’re hungry for more. And the next ‘tech feast’ we can expect is likely to be quantum computing. In terms of upgrading processing power, quantum computing could be the next game changer, making a - pun intended - quantum leap for science and technology.
Faster processing is the key to unlocking huge efficiency value in the tech sector; McKinsey predicts quantum technology could create value worth trillions of dollars within the next decade. And, recent advances in AI could bring forward the timeline to operationalizing the technology at scale.
The quantum rush
Quantum computing uses principles from quantum mechanics, specifically superposition and entanglement, to process information in fundamentally different ways from traditional computers. A regular computer stores information in bits, which can be either a 0 or a 1 at any time. A qubit, by contrast, can be in a state of 0, 1, or any combination of both at once, thanks to superposition. This allows quantum computers to evaluate many possible solutions at the same time.
Entanglement creates a connection between qubits, where the state of one directly affects the state of another, even when separated. This makes quantum systems highly efficient at solving problems involving many interdependent variables.
A business laptop might be able to simulate, say, a small molecule, by brute-force calculation, taking hours or days if the problem is complex. A quantum computer with enough stable qubits could perform the same task in seconds by exploring all configurations in parallel. It's not just faster; it’s a fundamentally more scalable approach to certain classes of very difficult problems.
To provide some real-world perspective, Google developed Willow, announced at the tail end of 2024, a quantum chip, which completed a benchmark task in under five minutes that would take a top supercomputer over 10 septillion years – far longer than the entire age of the universe.
Quantum leaps for business
In the long term, quantum computing could significantly impact businesses by unlocking new levels of computational power that enable faster and more efficient problem-solving. As quantum technology matures, businesses may benefit from breakthroughs in areas like optimization. It’s like switching from walking through a maze, to having a bird’s eye view of all the paths.
Spiros Michalakis, at the Caltech Institute for Quantum Information and Matter, stated that "even if 1% of what we expect comes to be, it will exponentially transform your business", anticipating we will see its impact within the next five years. Across a variety of sectors, quantum computing can vastly accelerate the automation of strategy, in supply chain management, resource allocation, data encryption, enhanced cybersecurity, and processing complex simulations, such as in product development or drug discovery.
While quantum computing may not directly replace current systems for most - small - businesses in the short term, those that adopt or integrate quantum solutions early on could gain a competitive edge in innovation, cost efficiency, and scalability that puts them lightyears ahead of competitors.
However, the pace of this transformation will depend on the accessibility and affordability of quantum technologies, which may initially be more available through cloud-based quantum computing services rather than requiring direct ownership of quantum hardware, which will likely remain expensive for considerable time.
How do we prepare?
The lessons we learn here and now from AI strategy can teach us how to expect and deploy new, esoteric technologies. It’s about finding those fault lines or cracks within your business – what isn’t working, and what is your tech stack limited in solving – and then resourcing around that. It’s important for leaders to stick their heads above the parapet and see what advanced solutions are out there in play, before they become mainstream and the early adopter advantage is lost.
The democratization of AI is teaching us that there is widespread accessibility for developers and deployers around emerging technologies. After DeepSeek hit the market it signaled a change. IBM underscored this – “it won’t just be the very elite that have access to incredible compute who will be able to build the next series of models”.
What has happened with AI goes a long way to show that these incredibly high-tier computing resources are not just top-shelf and exclusive. The more abundant and integrated they become, the more urgent it is for businesses of all sizes to look at how tech can help them. This is the thinking we need to apply to quantum computing.
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