Quantum for Business
Quantum technologies are beginning to reshape how businesses collect, compute, and secure information. For most organizations, the key question is not only when fully operational quantum computers will become a reality, but also where quantum can create value, where it introduces risk, and how organizations can prepare. The EDHEC Quantum Institute helps companies navigate these questions through independent assessments, pilot projects and support for adoption.
Quantum technologies are moving from the laboratory toward the market, and the signals worth tracking are institutional rather than commercial. In 2024 the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the federal body that sets cryptographic standards for the United States and, in practice, for much of the world, published the first post-quantum cryptography standards. That turns the migration away from today’s public-key encryption from a research topic into a compliance question. Public research programs on both sides of the Atlantic, from the European Quantum Flagship to the US National Quantum Initiative, have been running for years. And the United Nations designated 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, a century after the theory was formulated.
Financial services are believed to be the most active sector today, but the opportunity is broad, spanning materials, pharmaceuticals, energy, logistics, and telecommunications. For decision-makers, the point is less the market forecasts, which vary widely and date quickly, than the direction: the field is maturing, and quantum readiness is becoming part of strategic planning.
Quantum’s business relevance rests on three families of technology (computing, communication, and sensing), and it cuts two ways: new opportunities to optimize and simulate, and new risks to the security of today’s encryption. The value is sector-specific.
| Finance | portfolio optimization, risk modeling, pricing and Monte Carlo simulation, and financial machine learning. Protecting its data also means migrating to post-quantum cryptography, a classical safeguard (see Cybersecurity). See our research on quantum technologies in finance. |
| Telecommunications | Quantum communication and secure key distribution. |
| Cybersecurity | The risk side. Preparing for the day quantum computers can break public-key encryption. The response, post-quantum cryptography (PQC), is not itself a quantum technology: it relies on new classical algorithms, standardized by NIST in 2024, that run on today’s computers and are designed to resist quantum attacks. Organizations can adopt it now. See our work on post-quantum security. |
| Pharmaceuticals | Molecular simulation to support drug discovery. |
| Energy and materials | Simulation of molecules and materials for batteries, catalysts, and grids. |
| Logistics and manufacturing | Routing, scheduling, and supply-chain optimization. |
Two of these sectors, finance and telecommunications, are covered by the Institute’s own research programs. In the others, it works case by case with companies through the Innovation Hub.
Quantum readiness is a staged process, not a single decision. The first priorities are to build literacy on leadership teams, identify candidate use cases, and begin the inventory and migration to post-quantum cryptography: classical encryption algorithms, standardized by NIST in 2024, that are designed to resist quantum attacks. Data captured today can be stored and decrypted later, so long-lived sensitive data is already exposed. From there, the work is running pilots on real business problems, benchmarking quantum approaches against classical baselines, and tracking the roadmaps of hardware and software providers. As error-corrected hardware matures, organizations can scale the use cases where a durable quantum advantage is demonstrated.
The Hub connects quantum technology providers and industry leaders across telecommunications, banking, and other fields to support corporate partnerships for applied quantum R&D. These collaborations are formalized as research chair partnerships, aiming to explore quantum use cases in simulation, optimization, cybersecurity, and communication infrastructure. Partners gain customized access to the Institute’s talent and research, industry workshops, and executive briefings. The joint white papers that come out of these collaborations are published openly, and partners are associated with them.
The Institute partners with quantum hardware and software providers to evaluate and benchmark emerging technologies with respect to existing classical methods, across quantum computing platforms, post-quantum cryptography, and quantum communication infrastructure. Beyond technology assessment, its primary role is to help providers refine and strengthen their use cases, so that their solutions address genuine business needs, are more relevant to end clients, and are better positioned for market adoption.
The Institute works directly with banks, asset managers, insurers, and other corporates to translate quantum capabilities into concrete business outcomes. Through structured engagements, it helps organizations assess quantum readiness, discover high-value use cases, co-develop proofs of concept, and build internal expertise. This includes independent evaluations of potential quantum advantage and executive briefings for C-suite decision-makers.
The Hub connects quantum technology providers and industry leaders across telecommunications, banking, and other fields to support corporate partnerships for applied quantum R&D. These collaborations are formalized as research chair partnerships, aiming to explore quantum use cases in simulation, optimization, cybersecurity, and communication infrastructure. Partners gain customized access to the Institute’s talent and research, industry workshops, and executive briefings. The joint white papers that come out of these collaborations are published openly, and partners are associated with them.
The Institute partners with quantum hardware and software providers to evaluate and benchmark emerging technologies with respect to existing classical methods, across quantum computing platforms, post-quantum cryptography, and quantum communication infrastructure. Beyond technology assessment, its primary role is to help providers refine and strengthen their use cases, so that their solutions address genuine business needs, are more relevant to end clients, and are better positioned for market adoption.
The Institute works directly with banks, asset managers, insurers, and other corporates to translate quantum capabilities into concrete business outcomes. Through structured engagements, it helps organizations assess quantum readiness, discover high-value use cases, co-develop proofs of concept, and build internal expertise. This includes independent evaluations of potential quantum advantage and executive briefings for C-suite decision-makers.
.
Before investing, leadership teams typically weigh five questions.
The Institute helps leaders work through these questions objectively, without the hype that surrounds the field. To go further, see our executive programs.
Technology providers: develop and benchmark use cases suited to your technology. Become a partner.
End-users: assess your quantum readiness and identify high-value use cases suited to your needs. Propose a use case.
Cela implique d'utiliser les technologies quantiques (informatique, communication et capteurs) pour relever des défis commerciaux concrets, et de se préparer aux risques qu'elles engendrent. Concrètement, cela va de l'optimisation et de la simulation à la protection des données contre un éventuel décryptage futur.
Ils ne sont pas encore prêts pour une utilisation à grande échelle. Les ordinateurs quantiques actuels en sont encore à leurs balbutiements, et aucun système n’a encore démontré d’avantage commercial évident par rapport aux meilleures méthodes classiques pour résoudre un problème concret dans le monde des affaires. Cependant, les organisations peuvent d’ores et déjà commencer à identifier des cas d’utilisation prometteurs, mener des projets pilotes, comparer les approches quantiques aux solutions classiques et se préparer aux évolutions futures, notamment la transition vers une sécurité « quantique-sûre ». Ces étapes contribuent à développer les capacités nécessaires pour tirer parti de cette technologie à mesure qu’elle mûrit.
Les services financiers constituent actuellement le secteur le plus dynamique, suivis par l’énergie et les matériaux, la logistique et l’industrie manufacturière, l’industrie pharmaceutique et les télécommunications. Au-delà de l’informatique, la détection quantique est déjà en passe d’être utilisée à des fins industrielles dans les domaines de la métrologie, de la navigation et de l’imagerie médicale, ce qui élargit l’éventail des secteurs concernés. Tout secteur confronté à des problèmes complexes d’optimisation ou de simulation, où la précision des mesures est cruciale, ou qui doit protéger des données sensibles à long terme, a tout intérêt à s’engager dans cette voie. La première étape consiste à identifier des cas d’utilisation spécifiques à chaque secteur.
La « préparation quantique » désigne la capacité d’une organisation à comprendre, évaluer et se préparer aux opportunités et aux risques liés aux technologies quantiques. Elle repose à la fois sur les compétences de direction, une approche structurée pour identifier et évaluer les cas d’utilisation, les relations avec les fournisseurs et l’écosystème, ainsi qu’une feuille de route en matière de sécurité post-quantique. Il s’agit d’un processus par étapes qui peut débuter dès aujourd’hui, bien avant que le matériel quantique n’atteigne une maturité commerciale à grande échelle.
Through the Innovation Hub, as a technology provider (independent evaluation and benchmarking of technology and use cases), an industry end-user (readiness assessment, use-case discovery, pilots, executive briefings), or a startup (the forthcoming TechForward quantum track). Executive programs are also available for leadership teams. Contact the Institute to discuss the right engagement.
Back to top