Business in the Second Quantum Revolution

How can the behavior of tiny, tiny, tiny particles help with everyday business operations like inventory management, delivery schedules, or even investment strategies? In this interview, Dr. Sridhar Tayur, the Ford Distinguished Research Chair and University Professor of Operations Management at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business, shares his ideas. Dr. Tayur is the founder of CMU’s Quantum Technologies Group, which examines how the imperceptively small universe of quantum physics can have real-world applications for logistics, commerce, and health care.

Welcome to the Quantum Realm

In 2022, Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger received the Nobel Prize in Physics “for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science.” Although it had been in progress for decades, this moment in 2022 was an affirmation of the second quantum revolution and its continuing influence in the 21st century.

A century ago, physicists discovered that at the level of atoms, nature abandons certainty, trading the predictable geometry of Isaac Newton for a calculus of pure probability. These abstract and invisible concepts and realities have manifested in the mundanity of everyday life as smartphones, computers, and laser pointers, in the MRI machines in hospitals, and even energy-efficient LED lights, all of which rely on quantum mechanics. Industry adopted these breakthroughs so completely that we now treat them as ordinary objects of infrastructure, rarely pondering the physics that make them work. Today, we are in the second quantum revolution, a conceptual transition about refining our control over existing knowledge. If the first revolution mastered particles in the aggregate, the second revolution interrogates how to isolate, manipulate, and exploit the properties of individual tiny entities.

This secondary leap relies on two phenomena: superposition and entanglement. Superposition is when a subatomic particle, like an electron, can exist in multiple states at once. Entanglement is when, for example, two or more subatomic particles (like electrons) are linked and share a quantum state, regardless of physical or spatial properties. Through a series of experiments, Aspect, Clauser, and Zeilinger showed entanglement is a real phenomenon, pushing the concept into the realm of possibility.

“Corporate managers constantly make decisions under conditions of immense uncertainty, with exact answers computationally out of reach on classical computers. The second quantum revolution addresses this precise vulnerability by targeting complex optimization problems that cause traditional digital infrastructure to fall short.”

Quantum in Business Systems

For decades, the engineering challenges of managing fragile quantum states kept the second revolution in libraries and journals. Particles collapse out of superposition at the slightest disturbance. Constructing a stable system requires rigorous optimization. Bringing a viable product to market at a competitive cost requires data science, operations research, and advanced statistics. The inherent uncertainty of quantum systems requires a management system to handle hardware and infrastructure issues, along with the fundamental weirdness of quantum mechanics. This dual layer of uncertainty means that commercializing quantum technology is inherently an optimization problem.

Corporate leaders may think of these concepts as pure science, expecting little immediate relevance to the bottom line. Business, at its core, is a relentless struggle against complexity and calculation limits. Corporate managers constantly make decisions under conditions of immense uncertainty, with exact answers computationally out of reach on classical computers. The second quantum revolution addresses this precise vulnerability by targeting complex optimization problems that cause traditional digital infrastructure to fall short.

Take the financial sector, where multi-billion-dollar institutions navigate unpredictable, volatile global markets. Hedge funds deploy massive computing clusters to run machine learning models and calculate investment strategies. These classical systems work with approximations of reality bound by the limits of digital processing chips. Working with a New York hedge fund, Tayur’s Quantum Technologies Group restructured a complex investment algorithm. Because flawless, large-scale quantum computers are still out of reach, the team relied on quantum-inspired computing, which mimics quantum behavior using existing technology. The new formulation delivered answers five to ten times faster than standard computing, uncovering market insights that previously eluded the fund. In high-frequency finance, an acceleration of that magnitude translates directly into immense economic advantage.

The shipping and delivery industries face a massive hurdle. For decades, experts have studied puzzles like the traveling salesman problem (how to find the absolute fastest route for a vehicle making multiple stops). As you add more stops, the number of possible paths multiplies out of control, completely overwhelming even the world’s most powerful supercomputers. Because of this, current computers cannot find the perfect route. Instead, they have to rely on educated guesses that are good enough, but rarely the absolute best. Quantum computers solve this by looking at millions of different routing options all at the exact same time. This allows global shipping lines, airlines, and factories to map deliveries, reduce fuel, and manage inventory with incredible accuracy.

The pharmaceutical and material science industries face a similar computational wall. The ultimate achievement of biochemistry would be the ability to model molecular interactions at a true microscopic level. Classical computers struggle to simulate even small groupings of microscopic entities because the shifting quantum states of electrons create too many variables. Consequently, drug discovery relies on an expensive, time-consuming trial-and-error process. Second-generation quantum technologies offer a way to simulate chemistry using the native language of quantum mechanics. This shift enables researchers to predict how a new drug compound binds to a target protein, slashing the time required to bring therapies to market.

Tiny, Tiny, Tiny Particles Lead to a Big Advantage

Every major technological shift requires a long period of translation, where abstract principles gradually morph into industrial tools. The second quantum revolution will likely follow this exact trajectory. Business leaders do not need to master the mathematics of subatomic state vectors to benefit. They must, however, recognize that the computational tools of the past century are approaching their absolute physical limits. The corporations that learn to navigate this new subatomic landscape will solve the unsolvable, transforming Albert Einstein’s “spooky action at a distance” into a competitive advantage.