How businesses are preparing for the quantum revolution

Hello, and welcome to New Scientist’s Business Insights newsletter.

While AI is already having a major impact in many sectors, quantum computing could be the next transformative technology coming around the corner. Andrew Lord, senior manager of optical networks and quantum research at telecoms giant BT, knows that very well.

He will be speaking at New Scientist’s Emerging Technologies Summit next year about how BT plans to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by quantum computing. In today’s newsletter, Lord outlines how much of a game changer the technology could be, and where it could be best used. 

Are the changes we’re seeing in tech right now any more or less significant than what has gone before?

It’s just different – to say it’s bigger or less, it’s too early to say. There are many indicators that suggest it could be enormous. The big ticket item is clearly a quantum computer. But that doesn’t [really] exist yet. They do exist, but they’re not powerful enough to do the kind of things we’re hoping they are going to do. There’s a whole load of things that you can do with a quantum computer that… is too complex for a standard computer. It’s just around the corner. That’s got a lot of people excited.

On the other side, quantum computers also have the capability of breaking codes, and so a lot of our existing cryptography is potentially under threat. This is the good and the bad, and it feels like it’s a big-impact technology. There's a lot of money being poured in, lots of startups, lots of academic research, lots of work in places like BT, and all of the big players, like Amazon Web Services, IBM, Microsoft, Google, they’re all seriously investing in this technology. 

What should companies be doing to prepare?

We’re seeing… some of the big financial companies starting to build their own quantum departments. Not everyone can do that, but some are. HSBC has a quantum department. Lloyds has just started to recruit. Financial firms clearly have a vested interest that they need to be ultra-secure, and they tend to be a bit ahead of the game in terms of security, of course. But then, anybody else that cares about the longevity of their data security is starting to put their toes in the water.

The early starters are getting involved and building proof of concepts. For SMEs, who clearly don’t have the resources to do this kind of thing themselves, but ultimately will want access to quantum resources, that’s exactly where the likes of BT come in. You're not going to need to buy your own quantum computer to play. These things cost billions, and you might not need much time on one. You might just need a few seconds.

Is quantum technology a silver bullet for everything? Or are there people who can sit out the revolution?

The lion’s share of a quantum solution will not be quantum. It’ll be regular, solid engineering. If it’s computing power that’s needed, there will be a shed load of regular [power] sitting alongside the quantum [power] that is brought into action when it’s needed. So no, this isn’t just going to sit there replacing everything that we have. 

You mentioned security risks and breaking cryptography. How does that work?

Regular cryptography involves distributing a key to you so that we can talk securely. How do I get that key to you? I use existing algorithms which are under threat from quantum computers. What can you do about that? There are two avenues. One is to use a better algorithm. So I send my key to you using something that I don't think a quantum computer could break. Secondly, there’s the quantum solution. So fighting quantum with quantum, which is where I’m really interested. Now I’m not sending you a key using an algorithm. I’m going to send it on a quantum link that can’t be broken in the same way. There's no way [a quantum computer] can break that. 

Are there other areas where quantum technology can help, but we won’t know until it’s in our hands?

To make an analogy that’s often made, think about the internet. I remember being asked years ago, what's it for? I think my answer in context, looking back, would have been, ‘Don’t know.’ It’s being used for these incredible things that we certainly couldn’t have imagined 20 years ago, and the feeling here is the same.

We need to put a quantum internet or a quantum connection or quantum computers into the hands of people, so that they can then play with it. I think there are applications that we haven’t thought of yet and that we’re not going to find until we actually build it and start to make it available to people.

Thanks for reading, and do remember to share this newsletter with your network by hitting the repost button.

Chris Stokel-Walker