2025: The year to become Quantum-Ready

We find ourselves in an exciting and pivotal time. We are at the advent of the reliable quantum computing era. And we are right on the cusp of seeing quantum computers solve meaningful problems and capture new business value. As we look toward the next 12 months, the pace of quantum research and development is only going to accelerate, making this a critical and catalyzing time for business leaders to act. We’re seeing a growing need for business leaders to have the information and tools to understand better the depth of these amazing technical breakthroughs and the business applications and value they open up. In a business decision-maker study, 12% said their organizations were prepared to assess quantum opportunities. Clearly, there is an urgent need for leaders to get more information and better understand how technical advancements in quantum will enable real-world impact.    

Leaders in global companies, investment funds, and governments across the world are making multi-billion-dollar investments in quantum computing. Those organizations that are in the throes of planning a comprehensive quantum-ready strategy are creating durable, competitive differentiation for their organizations and positioning themselves to harness the full power of quantum as it scales. Clearly, without strategic readiness, it’s a challenging proposition for leaders to assess the risks and returns, or to design effective and responsible quantum strategies that are necessary to create a full-on quantum roadmap for their organization.

This is why at Microsoft we are excited to announce our new Quantum Ready program, designed to address these exact challenges by providing business leaders with the insights and tools needed to:

1. Build practical, high-impact hybrid applications.
2. Invest in strategic skilling and access to reliable quantum computers for experimentation.
3. Embrace quantum safety and focus on cryptographic agility.
4. Prepare for scale such that your investments are future-proofed.

Becoming quantum-ready is both a business and a global imperative. In fact, the United Nations announced 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ), reflecting the transformative impact quantum mechanics has had in the past century, and setting the stage for the next wave of quantum innovation. As part of this global initiative, Microsoft will be a leading partner with the IYQ, along with the American Physical Society (APS), to celebrate 100 years of quantum innovation. We are so excited to partner with APS and other leading institutions to support the IYQ as it engages with communities from across the world to scale awareness of how quantum science and applications will transform industries.

Quantum Ready

Quantum Ready can help future proof your organization today for a quantum-powered tomorrow

Hybrid applications: Business value and security for today and tomorrow

Given the rapid pace of innovation, it’s critical that organizations start exploring, identifying, and building an application roadmap that sets them up for success in a quantum future. Doing so will clarify where and when quantum will provide tangible business value and guide both how and to what degree, you should invest to become quantum-ready today.

Through our Quantum Ready program, leaders will have an opportunity to engage with Microsoft in one-on-one workshops and industry-specific forums to accelerate their strategic readiness and identify high-value use cases. We hope to bring learnings that result from these industry-specific forums to the broader ecosystem to provide practical insights in the form of custom industry outlook reports to help guide your organization’s leadership and company strategy.

Additionally, business leaders need to start preparing for a quantum-safe future; not because there is an immediate threat but because a transition to emerging cryptographic standards will take time. Security is a top priority at Microsoft—this is why we established the Microsoft Quantum Safe Program to enable security alignment from both business and technical perspectives.

Cultivating a quantum-ready culture: Skilling and vision for the hybrid era

Cultivating a culture of innovation begins with robust workforce skilling and training, empowering teams with the knowledge and mindset to embrace quantum-enabled possibilities. Putting this mindset into practice requires providing access to a unified hybrid platform integrating resilient quantum computing, classical supercomputing, and AI. Especially when 76% of leaders indicate that a quantum skills crisis is causing a deceleration in innovation, the organizations that can harness the power of these complementary technologies—and who understand their use is not a matter of either or, but when and how—are in a distinct position to stay ahead.

Our Quantum Ready program will offer different skilling and training opportunities to help prepare business and government leaders with resources, frameworks, and tools they need to:

• Understand why quantum technology is positioned to help revolutionize your business operations, talent strategies, and infrastructure.
• Gain an early-mover competitive edge by creating a quantum strategy that aligns the technology’s potential with your specific business and innovation goals.
• Explore deep insight and guidance into the impact quantum computing will make in your industry and what it means for your organization.

Acting for success: Preparation for scale with the right partner

So, where and how should organizations start? Navigating the many skilling, strategy, and culture considerations is not easy, and it requires the right partners: those with experience putting state-of-the-art hybrid tools into practice with real-world, impactful applications; those who carefully consider the risks quantum pose and are working to mitigate them with leading security solutions and commitments to safe use; and finally, those with an open ecosystem approach to future-proof your investments.

From envisioning new use cases and identifying co-innovation opportunities to receiving first access to visionary industry insights, outlook reports, skilling, workshops, and other exciting new programs to come, sign up here to join Microsoft’s Quantum Ready program. We look forward to connecting with you soon! 

Learn how Microsoft can help you become quantum ready  

Mitra Azizirad

President and Chief Operating Officer of Strategic Missions and Technologies @ Microsoft

Mitra Azizirad is the President and Chief Operating Officer for Microsoft’s Strategic Missions and Technologies organization. She is focused on turning innovation into new business categories, and driving value and growth for commercial, industry, and government customers by bringing transformative next-generation technologies, such as quantum computing, to market.

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