Boston — Quantum computing has finally yielded results crucial to science and industry, according to a presentation at IBM Think 2026.
Quantum computing aims to leverage the unique properties of quantum physics to solve complex problems that classical computing cannot. In the opening keynote of this week's IBM Think conference in Boston, quantum computing was prominently featured alongside artificial intelligence and hybrid cloud. The conference also announced the completion of the largest known biologically significant molecular simulation to date using quantum hardware by the Cleveland Clinic, RIKEN, and IBM. Boeing and Allstate Insurance also demonstrated real-world applications of quantum computing.
Despite years of development in quantum computing, the quantum advantage—the tipping point where quantum computers can perform calculations more precisely and efficiently—has not yet arrived. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna predicts that the quantum advantage will be achieved this year.
“This isn't going to happen in 20 years, or even 10 years; it's going to happen this year,” Krishna said in his keynote address on Tuesday. “The gap is closing much faster than most people realize or appreciate.”
The Cleveland Clinic, RIKEN, and IBM used IBM's quantum computer and two supercomputers—Fugaku and JaG—to simulate a protein complex containing up to 12,635 atoms. The project's success is partly attributed to quantum-centric supercomputing, a hybrid approach that combines quantum computing with traditional supercomputers to solve complex problems that neither type of computer alone could efficiently handle.
The project simulated a system large enough to represent systems found in nature and achieved the required precision. In the field of drug design, if scientists can reliably predict molecular behavior early in their research, they can significantly shorten the time to new drug development—a process that typically takes more than 10 years. According to Gartner's report, "First-Handed Perspective: Quantum Breakthroughs," this could accelerate time-to-market and enhance competitive advantage for the biopharmaceutical industry.
"We've moved beyond the stage of abstract experimentation and entered the stage of practical exploration," said Scott Crowder, Vice President of Adoption at IBM Quantum, at the "Making Quantum Work" panel discussion. "Quantum technology may be more valuable than traditional methods in solving problems critical to industry and society."
Experts at the panel, all practitioners in the field of quantum computing, shared their experiences, potential application cases, and problems they are seeking to solve. For example, aerospace company Boeing is developing new corrosion-resistant materials and coatings. Mana Kagle, a technical researcher and project manager at Boeing, pointed out that this area has the most far-reaching impact, stating that annual spending on corrosion mitigation or prevention is estimated at up to $20 billion.
"Today, what we're really focused on is scale… We know quantum computing can help us, but we have to understand how to achieve industrial-scale," Kagle said.
Allstate Insurance is also using quantum computing to solve problems that traditional computing struggles with, especially when dealing with highly correlated decision sets. For example, homes across the United States face various risks such as hail, hurricanes, and fires, all of which affect insurance decisions.
Allstate Insurance is using quantum methods for stochastic optimization in insurance underwriting. Eric Huls, Chief Analytics and Data Officer at Allstate, stated that traditional methods "struggle" when dealing with highly correlated and large-scale decision-making, while quantum computing "allows us to handle these joint decision spaces more directly." For an insurance company that insures over 7 million homes, even a small improvement in mathematical precision can translate into better business results.
"Allstate is still in the early stages of this process, so we're still breaking down problems into smaller pieces to fit the hardware. But now, we no longer need simulations or similar methods; we can directly solve problems using these optimization techniques. Now, we've found a way to solve problems more comprehensively and more closely reflect real-world scenarios," Huls said.
The panel discussion also covered the following other application examples:
Vanguard's fixed income portfolio optimization.
E.ON's distributed energy system optimization.
Moderna's quantum optimization techniques for predicting mRNA secondary structure.
Improving HSBC's corporate bond trading execution strategy.
IBM operates over 80 quantum computers and has more than 300 partners in academia, government, and industry worldwide.
“Quantum computing has been a promising vision for years. Today, quantum computers are producing results that are critical to science. The systems we are simulating here are the very molecules that biologists and chemists study in the real world,” said Jay Gambetta, director of IBM Research and an IBM Fellow, in a recent press release about a collaboration with the Cleveland Clinic and Riken.
While the breakthrough in protein complex simulation is a significant achievement, Gartner says caution is necessary, requiring better integration of classical and quantum systems, along with specialized algorithms, to enable these processes to effectively solve other similar problems.
Quantum computing is still several years away from truly delivering commercial benefits. It hasn't yet generated everyday applications and productivity gains like artificial intelligence, but the breakthrough in protein simulation could change how businesses perceive quantum computing.
“The results of these experiments strongly suggest that quantum computing is making progress and should prompt businesses to invest more seriously now. You can't wait until the technology matures—that would be too late, because writing quantum algorithms and solving problems are fundamentally different from classical computing,” said Dr. Gaurav Gupta, Vice President and Analyst of Gartner's Emerging Trends and Technologies team.
IBM deployed its first quantum computer to the cloud on May 4, 2016, marking the tenth anniversary of its cloud-based quantum computing service—which eventually evolved into the IBM Quantum Platform. Cloud-based quantum computing is changing who and how people access quantum computing services.
“As long as there's a way to utilize the internet and cloud computing, quantum computing will eventually benefit everyone,” Gupta said.
The relationship between artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing is multifaceted, not competitive.
"Incidentally, quantum mechanics and AI are not in competition; they are integrated and complementary," says Krishna. "Quantum mechanics can help discover what AI cannot currently compute, and then AI can learn from quantum mechanics, allowing for increasingly faster progress in algorithms and computation."
The IBM Institute for Business Value (IBM IBV), a thought leaders think tank, points out in its report, "The Quantum Age Is Coming," that quantum technologies can accelerate AI training through faster optimization, more accurate simulations, and higher-quality sampling. In turn, AI can optimize quantum workflows, guide algorithm design, and rationally allocate resources between quantum and classical architectures. An IBM IBV survey shows that 73% of respondents believe quantum technologies can accelerate the development of AI and high-performance computing capabilities. For companies already quantum-ready, this figure rises to 98%.
Gambeta views AI as a tool that helps people utilize computing resources more effectively and as a way of interacting. He"very much hopes to see quantum-driven AI," but this will take several years to realize.
“If quantum technology surpasses artificial intelligence, I think there's something wrong with our society,”Gambetta said.“AI should always be at the core, architecture should always be at the core… and then quantum technology empowers the architecture.”
