Preparing for the quantum leap
08 April 2025While AI has been dominating headlines, another emerging technology has been on an upwards trend: quantum computing.
In March 2023, the UK announced a £2.5bn investment in quantum technologies as part of its 10-year strategy, with the aim of making the UK a leading quantum-enabled economy by 2033. This more than doubled previous public investment, with ambitions to attract further significant private investment. More recently, in July 2024, over £100m of government funding was announced to support five new tech hubs which aim to develop practical uses of quantum technology, including a hub specifically dedicated to quantum computing.
Over the past few years, the technology itself has taken impressive strides. Quantum processing units (QPUs) have advanced in capability and quantum error correction, meaning the realisation of a full-scale quantum computer is drawing ever closer. Big tech giants are jumping into the fray, with Microsoft recently announcing its creation of the world’s first quantum processor powered by topological qubits (quantum bits): Majorana 1. While some of their claims have been questioned by researchers, the step forward has certainly succeeded in generating industry buzz.
So, what is quantum computing?
In classical computing, the simplest unit of information is a bit, which can exist in one of two possible states, represented by 0 or 1. A qubit can exist not only in the states of 0 or 1 but also in a superposition of both states. This superposition allows a qubit to represent both 0 and 1 at the same time, and multiple qubits can process a vast number of possibilities simultaneously. Quantum algorithms can exploit this property, as well as entangled qubits (qubits which are correlated) to carry out certain computations much faster than their classical counterparts.
This is a completely new way of solving problems, and while quantum computers will likely not replace classical ones, they can offer solutions simply beyond the capabilities of classical computing.
What will quantum computing do?
While quantum computing may seem like the stuff of science fiction, its impact will be felt cross-industry and will likely bring about significant opportunities as well as challenges and the need for widespread process change. Examples include:
1. Commercial investment potential
The European Patent Office has reported a significant increase in the number of patents related to quantum computing over the years, and the UK in fact recently updated its manual of patent practice to include sections relating specifically to quantum computing. This indicates a growing recognition of quantum computing as a valuable and emerging asset class, attracting investment and innovation.
Quantum computers are particularly well-suited to providing faster and more efficient results for specific types of problems that would greatly benefit several industries, such as financial services. These problems include optimisation, portfolio and risk management, and financial modelling, with several prominent companies within financial services and related industries already setting up specialist quantum teams to leverage these capabilities.
2. Threats to cybersecurity
Perhaps the biggest challenge to be posed by quantum computers is their potential to break the most common encryptions used to protect data globally. This will have profound effects on privacy and security, heralding a need for an overhaul of current data protection methods.
The National Cybersecurity Centre has already stated that organisations should be considering “quantum-safe” encryption as part of their long-term strategy and has released guidance on planning migration to post-quantum cryptography, which is predicted to be a multi-year activity.
In a major milestone, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the US released details last year of three quantum-resistant encryption methods, of which it encourages early adoption.
3. Regulatory shifts
As with AI, quantum computing will likely bring about many questions on policy and regulation – especially regarding new privacy and security protocols, but also within already complexly-regulated industries such as pharmaceuticals given the technology’s potential to drastically improve drug development and discovery.
In February 2024, the Regulatory Horizon Council published a report with fourteen recommendations for the regulation of quantum technology applications, to which the government published a response in October 2024, broadly agreeing with the main points.
In January 2025, a Westminster Forum policy discussion highlighted the importance of regulating uses, rather than the technology itself, finding broad agreement that while the UK government should be engaged, it should avoid stifling innovation by stepping in to regulate too early. Whether quantum computing can avoid the fragmented regulatory landscape of AI remains to be seen.
4. AI development trajectory
AI is becoming increasingly relevant in its capacity to improve efficiency and aid with day-to-day tasks.
Generative AI requires huge amounts of data and computational power, creating a great demand for water, electricity and other resources. From a sustainability standpoint, quantum computing could play a part in furthering AI development, providing better ways to train models which require fewer resources. With the current climate crisis, this will only become more important over time.
Quantum machine learning is another active field of research and could have wide-ranging applications. One potential is the use of quantum machine learning for fraud detection in financial institutions such as banks, which could help reduce losses from fraudulent activity, as well as improve customer experience.
Though the era of quantum computing is in its infancy with broad scale practical applications likely still more than a decade away, the UK Government already considers quantum as one of its five priority technologies of tomorrow, alongside AI. As we have seen with the AI boom, it would therefore be sensible for organisations to start considering quantum computing now to avoid being caught out in the future.
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