The Quantum Economy

This technological moment demands that businesses anticipate the future

“What is the future that we want to create if everything is doable?”

The current technological moment with its “digital tsunami” of rapid advancement makes that question not a hypothetical one, but one that demands an answer from us, business philosopher Anders Indset says. Developments in AI and quantum computing are quickly seeing to it that just about anything we can imagine can be built in technology. With that comes a radical transition in how we interact with each other and what it means to be human, the author of “The Singularity Paradox” told BOSS.

The direct impact of quantum technology might be seen in optimized financial portfolios, energy abundance, drug discoveries; the effects of a “quantum economy” will be far-reaching. Thus, it’s important for every business leader to have an understanding of what quantum technologies can and will do, Indset said.

“Because these breakthroughs will have massive implications for humanity, they’ll create new business models and opportunities, not necessarily directly related to quantum, but as spin-offs of it. If you look at advances in areas like medicine, treating cancer, Alzheimer’s, and other major challenges, they’ll open entirely new markets and business opportunities in completely different sectors.” It’s why business leaders must think about the future they want and set about bringing it to life.

‘Triangular Alchemy of Modern Business’

First and foremost, from a business perspective, leaders need to concern themselves with the cybersecurity demands quantum technology carries with it.

“If one believes that there will be something of a stable quantum computer at a scale that can be used, then basically all cryptography is insecure, which is a threat to most companies, Indset said.

The U.S. government has identified about a quarter million companies that will need to migrate to post-quantum safe cryptography as part of critical infrastructure. Terra Quantum, SandboxAQ, and Quantinuum are among the companies working on quantum security that allows users to experiment with algorithms and optimization scenarios on classical-quantum hybrid models.

“It is clear from the government what is needed to fulfill requirements, and on the other side, there are scientific papers to back such approaches demonstrating that we already have the solutions to a post-quantum safe cryptography.”

In the long term, the evolving technological structure of society is driving a shift that Anders Indset describes as the “triangular alchemy of modern business.” At its core, this model requires companies to build three foundational pillars

The first pillar focuses on incubating clients, helping them grow their businesses so they can, in turn, help grow yours. It’s about creating a mutually beneficial relationship built on shared success. “Instead of simply selling,” Indset explains, “you position yourself at the forefront, learning from the broader societal transition as it happens.”

The second pillar positions the company as an investor of VC. “You need to invest in companies to build assets for difficult times, but also to replace your own business model.”

The third pillar is efficiency. “You have an operational excellence unit that looks for efficiency throughout the organization, and these three pillars together create dynamism for a becoming organization that learns rapidly and anticipates future scenarios.”

This type of anticipatory leadership creates a business model for an organization that is continuously adapting and striving toward a dynamic equilibrium that makes sense of the digital tsunami.

Inflection Points

There are indications that 2025 will be something of an inflection point for quantum technology. Developments such as Willow, Google Quantum AI’s 105-qubit superconducting quantum chip, and Amazon’s Ocelet chip that purports to reduce error correction by up to 90%, have drawn media attention. The UN declared 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. The extra interest will draw investment into the sector, crucial at a time when there’s huge demand for talent and R&D is expensive.

“This will drive a lot of money into the industry,” Indset said. “You see a lot of physicists moving out of academia and doing their research work in corporations and organizations.”

Key players trying to position themselves at the forefront of quantum computing will announce breakthroughs and surprises later this year, he predicted.

“Look out for NVIDIA, look out for Microsoft to propose something in the near future. AWS/Amazon and obviously Google will have breakthroughs that they will communicate at large scales this year.”

That those big-name companies are involved indicates a more mature market moving from scientific journals to commercial products. Companies are making long-term predictions on increasing the number of qubits and scaling with error correction, and while it’s unclear which approach will succeed, there is plannable progress.

“This is why companies need to pay attention and why it’s relevant now, because if you had a head start advantage in the AI space, the head start advantage will be higher at quantum,” he said. “We’re looking at trillion-dollar industries, therefore an early adopter’s advantage is even bigger than it was with AI.”

In other words, the time is now for leaders to look at how their business might utilize quantum technologies.

Creating the Future

We can’t predict all the outcomes and implications of creating an artificial human intelligence and of quantum computing, Indset said, “but it’s a necessity that every leader and every organization taps into this world of tomorrow.”

A technological singularity where AIs create more AIs and do AI research is thinkable even without quantum computing, he said.

A stabilized quantum computer with, say, a million qubits is theoretically possible.

“I challenged 12 quantum physicists to prove to me that we are not in a simulation, and they can’t do it by the understanding of our physical laws,” he said. “The only limitation that we have would be the entropy in the universe.

“It’s very hard with math and quantum to argue against simulation, and therefore the computational potentialities of a quantum computer is more or less limitless.”

A million-qubit quantum computer probably won’t come on the market anytime soon, but something more powerful than the collective knowledge of humanity is probably not many years away, he said.

“The question, then, will not be so much, ‘Is it doable?’ The question is much more along the lines of, ‘What kind of future is worth striving for?’”

While the old model of technological progress was trial and error, with frequent course correction, “the future is more about, ‘We have one shot. What’s it going to be?’”

What kind of world do you want to build?