World Quantum Day 2026 – The slow arrival of quantum computing (and the fast arrival of its risks)

Our thanks to all the technology professionals who shared their views for our World Quantum Day 2026. We were overwhelmed by the interest and volume of responses. For readability, we have included a wider selection of responses here.

Quantum computing has a branding problem. Depending on which headline you read, it is either about to change everything or it never quite arrives. The reality, as ever, is less dramatic and more inconvenient. According to IDC and others tracking the space, most organisations are still stuck somewhere between curiosity and commitment, aware that quantum matters, but unclear on when it moves from science project to business priority.

That ambiguity is exactly what makes this year’s World Quantum Day interesting. Because while the hardware story continues to inch forward, the risk story is accelerating. “Harvest now, decrypt later” is no longer theoretical, and the shift to post-quantum cryptography has quietly become a multi-year transformation programme rather than a future consideration. At the same time, there is a growing sense that the first real returns may not come from quantum machines themselves, but from quantum-inspired techniques and hybrid architectures that fit neatly into today’s environments.

What follows reflects that tension. Below is a compilation of some of the most interesting responses we received when we asked professionals in the field different questions about what lies ahead for quantum computing. Some see breakthrough potential in areas like energy optimisation and simulation. Others see an approaching security deadline. A few remain unconvinced the dominant models will ever scale as promised.

But taken together, the message is clear enough: quantum computing may not be fully here yet, but the need to make decisions about it absolutely is.

Related reading: What’s next for quantum computing

What should every business leader understand about quantum computing right now?

Given the acceleration of quantum computers and their capabilities, the time it takes to train talent, and the growing potential use cases, organizations need a roadmap for how they will derive value from quantum computers – the who, what, when, where, why and how?

The good news is that while we wait for hardware to mature, there are increasing options to see return on investment today using quantum-inspired techniques, which use principles of quantum physics and run on today’s CPUs and GPUs.

Done properly, quantum-inspired techniques provide value today (for instance, in machine learning and simulations) while also providing the opportunity to learn about the techniques used to program quantum computers.

And once the hardware comes online, these techniques can pivot to run on future machines, helping futureproof talent and technology while realising value today

Scott Buchholz, Quantum Computing Lead at Deloitte

Quantum computing will not replace your computers, but it will break your encryption, so business leaders must start planning for post-quantum cybersecurity now. Standards have already been released, and with currently used encryption going away within the upcoming decade, the clock has already started counting down. You don’t want to be left behind.

Quantum’s real power lies in solving a few critical problems years down the line, so build expertise and identify high-impact use cases today to stay ahead.

Kawin Boonyapredee, CISO Advisor at KnowBe4

What is one real-world problem that quantum computing could solve within the next decade that classical computing cannot?

One of the most critical challenges quantum computing will solve within the next decade is the optimisation of global power grids to accommodate the mass transition to renewable energy.

As we move away from steady fossil fuels toward fluctuating sources like solar and wind, classical computers struggle to manage the Unit Commitment Problem (UCP), the complex calculation of when to start or stop generators to balance supply and demand in real-time.

Quantum systems can process these billions of variables simultaneously, preventing energy waste and grid instability. This shift will allow us to secure the 3E+S standard (Energy Security, Economy, Environment and Safety) and hit aggressive carbon-neutral goals that is mathematically impossible for today’s hardware to manage.

Dippu Kumar Singh, Leader of Emerging Technologies at Fujitsu North America Inc.

Breaking encryption. That’s the honest answer. Today’s cryptography works because no classical machine can crack it in a useful time. A mature quantum computer could.

We’re not there yet, probably not for another seven or eight years at production scale, but the countdown is already running. So it won’t solve a real-world problem. It will create a new one. And a huge one. Maybe there will be some other application in simulation, chemistry, or AI. But I believe cryptography will be impacted first.

Jiří Štěpán, CEO at Etnetera Group

How should organisations be preparing today for the security risks posed by quantum computing?

Adversaries are already using ‘Harvest Now, Decrypt Later’ tactics, and – if Google’s latest predictions are correct – Q-Day could arrive as early as 2029. Migrating data and asset protection infrastructure to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) is a multi-year journey, spanning data in motion, data at rest and data in use. Meaning universal migration should have already started.

A year on from NIST’s quantum-safe standards, we’re seeing organisations start to move from planning PQC to deployment. Large enterprises such as Mastercard are already advocating early adoption, particularly in the finance sector.

Yet, without standardised benchmarks for quantum risk and readiness, many organisations continue to underestimate the threat. Research from the 2026 Global State of Post-Quantum and Cryptographic Security Trends report shows that only 38% of organisations globally are currently transitioning to PQC.

In 2026, leaders need to take decisive action to protect how identities are issued, verified and trusted in a post-quantum world.

Robert Hann, Global VP of Technical Solutions at Entrust

Quantum computing doesn’t only pose a risk in the future. Cybercriminals are already preparing for ‘Q-Day’ – the day on which quantum computers can break current public-key encryption.

Businesses need to act immediately, but with focus. Becoming crypto-agile is critical. Organisations must understand what cryptography they use, where it is deployed, and what it protects. This visibility is essential to assess risk and prioritise change. From there, implement quantum-resistant encryption across your most critical connections.

Google recently warned that Q-Day could arrive by 2029, sooner than previously expected. This is driving “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks, where encrypted data is stolen today and decrypted in the future. Once quantum computers break current encryption, there’s no going back.

Richard Meeus, Director of Security Technology and Strategy EMEA at Akamai

The greatest quantum risk isn’t a decade away – it is the “harvest now, decrypt later” reality we face today. Bad actors are already stockpiling encrypted data, banking on future quantum power to render today’s defenses obsolete. For most leaders, the priority shouldn’t be the hardware; it must be the identity architecture.

Identity is the final control plane, and in the era of autonomous AI, that plane is expanding. Under our new Blueprint for the Secure Agentic Enterprise, we are moving the industry toward a model where every AI agent is treated as a first-class identity. If your security relies on implicit trust or long-lived tokens, you are already vulnerable to both future quantum decryption and immediate agentic action risk.

Organisations must transition to identity-first governance – providing continuous verification and a kill switch for every human and non-human identity. Hardening this foundation is the only way to build the agility required to stay ahead of the quantum threat.

Dan Mountstephen, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Asia Pacific & Japan, Okta

Is quantum computing overhyped today, or are businesses underestimating how disruptive it will be?

I have a very contrarian opinion on quantum computing. I think quantum computers based on qubit entanglement will never work, at least not as well as people hope they will.

Sharing Albert Einstein’s opinion, I haven’t reconciled with the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics and believe that quantum entanglement is only an expression of deeper physical phenomena, which cannot be used for such parallel computation. That’s why quantum computers are so elusive and always several years ahead.

By the way, that doesn’t mean quantum mechanics won’t make computers faster – it certainly will, just not through qubits. 

Jan Čurn, CEO and Co-Founder Apify

It is really a superposition of the two. In some ways quantum computing is overhyped, and at the same time many businesses are underestimating its potential to disrupt. This really has to do with timelines, market drivers, and a lack of understanding of quantum computing.

Quantum computers will be disruptive, but both the applications and hardware are still being developed. The unknown potential easily leads to hyping, which is true of most emerging markets. Yet, because the applications and the hardware needed for real impact are still being developed, many businesses are likely underestimating or at least not focusing on how it will affect their work.

Businesses should understand that not every headline signals a revolution in the field, but taken all together, significant progress is being made. Quantum computing will arrive and provide real value for those prepared to adopt and deploy.

Corey Stambaugh, Director of The Capital of Quantum

The idea of quantum computers entirely replacing classical data centres is definitely hype, but the shift towards ‘hybrid’ data centres is very real – where CPUs, GPUs and Quantum Processing Units (QPUs) will work together.

We won’t see data centres start ripping out server racks and replacing them with quantum before 2030 at the earliest. The real data centre revolution is happening in the software layer.

For enterprises, the big bottleneck is the months of custom integration code required to make QPUs operate as accelerators for existing High-Performance Computing (HPC). Fixing this is what will deliver more immediate, measurable ROI for enterprises today.

Dan Holme, Co-Founder & CEO, Qoro Quantum

When do you realistically expect quantum computing to impact your industry – and what will that first impact look like?

For digital identity, authentication and biometrics, I expect the first real impact to arrive well before a dramatic ‘quantum breaks everything’ moment. The first visible impact will be architectural, not theatrical: more urgent crypto-agility programs, PQC transition planning around signatures, credentials, firmware, device trust, and long-lived authentication infrastructure, and more serious thinking about how to defend against future machine-speed fraud.

In parallel, I expect R&D teams to keep exploring how quantum methods might strengthen fraud detection, replay resistance, and liveness in regulated sectors such as banking, healthcare, and government.

So, the first impact on our industry will likely look less like a headline-grabbing quantum login experience and more like a redesign of the trust stack underneath identity systems.

Ralph Rodriguez, President and Chief Product Officer, Daon

Quantum computing looms on the horizon and with it the potential for catastrophic data compromise. Quantum is expected to allow attackers to break encryption rendering all sensitive data vulnerable but just when that threat will be realised remains an unknown. A year? Ten years? It’s certainly coming, which is why threat actors are thought to be hoarding encrypted data in the expectation they’ll be able to decrypt it in the future.

IBM predicts we can expect early networked Quantum in the early 2030’s. But our expectation is that a nation state will make inroads with the technology before then, into 2027 or 2028 after which Pandora’s Box will be open.

If that happens, it’s the security sector that will need to step up first because we can expect to see mass data dumps on the dark web, mass credential abuse, and it declared ‘open season’ on corporate systems.

Organisations therefore need to start familiarising themselves now with the NIST post quantum cryptographic standards released last year, the innovative algorithms it refers to, and begin to plan how they will migrate their existing data assets to become quantum-ready.

Gary Mounsor, Senior Cybersecurity Consultant at e2e-assure