Quantum.Tech 2026: Industry Leaders Reflect on a Pivotal Year for Quantum

Quantum.Tech Boston 2026 drew together investors, enterprise technologists, and financial institutions for a wide-ranging look at where quantum computing stands today — and where it's headed. We spoke with three speakers from the event, who bring very different vantage points to the conversation: Michael Baczyk, Investor at HeartCore Capital; John Licata, Innovation Officer and Quantum Lead at ServiceNow; and Esco Sanchez Martinez, Executive Director and Quantum Lead at BBVA. Their reflections, collated below, paint a picture of an industry moving decisively from scientific curiosity toward commercial reality.

A Pivotal Moment for the Industry

For Baczyk, the sheer scale of this year's event was itself the headline. "2026 feels special, and Quantum.Tech Boston delivered on that," he said. "The sheer size of the event is remarkable, and it reflects how many new people are being pulled into quantum." With 2025 having been designated the International Year of Quantum Science, he sees 2026 as the opening of something bigger: "2025 was the International Year of Quantum Science, and 2026 opens the new century of quantum. It is the century of Quantum Industry." Tellingly, he added: "You could feel it is a pivotal moment because quantum is penetrating adjacent domains such as photonics and semiconductors. Many discussions were not strictly about quantum, yet those communities are being drawn into the field. That is the biggest takeaway: we are on a curve that points upwards."

Licata framed the same shift in strategic terms: "The depth and breadth of the industry is colliding with market movements that the enterprise can no longer overlook. Quantum computing is increasingly becoming a strategic conversation, not just a scientific one."

Esco's takeaways were more technical, but pointed in the same direction, structured around three points. On the state of quantum algorithms, Esco said: "Peter Shor noted that the discovery of practical quantum algorithms has been limited since his 1994 breakthrough, remaining largely restricted to specialized fields such as number theory, cryptography, and physics simulations. He emphasized that direct experimentation is necessary to secure a commercial advantage." On the hardware challenge: "Current quantum hardware platforms exhibit error rates ranging from approximately 1 in 1,000 to 1 in 10,000. To achieve the 1-in-a-billion error rates required for commercial applications, the industry is transitioning toward modular systems engineering and advanced error correction protocols." And on the commercial picture: "Quantum technology is beginning to transition from exploratory research into early commercial experimentation, supported by growing enterprise investment... more than 300 enterprises are currently engaging with quantum computing," with "many enterprise quantum programs now involv[ing] multi-million-dollar budgets, supporting initiatives ranging from proofs of concept to co-invested development projects."

Conversations That Stood Out

Government's growing role in shaping the quantum landscape was a recurring theme. Baczyk highlighted the government-focused sessions in particular: "Quantum is a strategic priority for nations across the board, and after the recent executive orders there was a great deal to learn from what is coming out of the White House on quantum, and what it means for the global geopolitical race."

Esco offered the most detailed account of the event's cross-sector programming: "The conference highlighted essential cross-sector dialogue between academic theory, hardware scaling, and public policy, anchored by an opening fireside featuring MIT Professor Peter Shor on the race toward Shor's algorithm and the threat to classical cryptography." Esco went on to describe how "keynote tracks connected fundamental physical breakthroughs — from Nobel Prize-winning research such as that presented by Professor John Martinis — to scalable quantum hardware, while Shazam founder Chris Barton delivered an entrepreneurial keynote on questioning assumptions and eliminating friction to bring disruptive ideas to life."

On the policy side, Esco noted that "government leaders, including US Department of Commerce Deputy Secretary Paul Dabbar, outlined strategic initiatives to strengthen national leadership in quantum technology." And that cross-sector alignment, Esco said, "translated directly into enterprise financial applications, where industry leaders presented practical deployment roadmaps" — with BBVA, Mastercard, Wells Fargo, State Street, Intesa Sanpaolo, and Yapı Kredi Bank all sharing "frameworks for leveraging quantum technologies while preparing financial services for the transition to a post-quantum world."

For Licata, the value was more personal and direct: "Having the opportunity to speak with various technology leaders about their growth plans and roadmaps made the trip to Boston extremely valuable."

What Enterprise Leaders Should Prioritize Next

Asked what should be top of mind for enterprises over the next 12 months, all three pointed toward readiness — though each emphasized a different dimension of it.

Baczyk was direct: "Use case identification and resource estimation. This is really the time to start." He was candid about the difficulty of building the right team for this work: "The right expertise is hard to find: you need to understand your own domain, but also quantum algorithms, compilation and error correction to arrive at credible resource estimates, and those estimates vary significantly depending on many factors."

Licata framed quantum readiness as inseparable from AI strategy: "Quantum readiness is a no brainer. Quantum and AI are converging, the enterprises that treat them as a single integrated capability will compound returns from both."

Esco laid out three priorities in detail, in Esco's own words:

• Commercial tipping point and enterprise readiness — "Quantum computing is transitioning from scientific promise toward strategic commercial readiness. Rather than waiting for full classical replacement, leading organizations are already building internal capabilities, testing focused business use cases — such as fraud detection, network routing and financial distress modelling — and strengthening their post-quantum cybersecurity strategies."

• Achieving practical quantum advantage — "One of the most promising paths toward near-term Quantum Advantage — where quantum systems outperform classical architectures in speed, precision or cost — is through hybrid Quantum + High-Performance Computing (HPC) integration. Combining classical supercomputing with quantum coprocessors enables organizations to address increasingly complex optimization and simulation problems, including materials discovery, supramolecular biology and decentralized energy networks."

• Progress in quantum error correction (QEC) — "The transition toward large-scale Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing (FTQC) continues to accelerate thanks to significant advances in Quantum Error Correction and decoding efficiency. New generations of error-correcting codes are substantially reducing qubit overhead while improving decoding performance, bringing fault-tolerant quantum systems closer to practical implementation over the coming decade."

Looking Ahead to Quantum.Tech 2027

When it comes to what deserves more attention next year, the panel converged around a common gap: the industry's plumbing.

Baczyk pointed to system-level and scale-up activity, along with supply chain development, as the areas most in need of focus: "System-level and scale-up activities, and the development of the supply chain. System integration is still the missing piece. Everyone is thinking within their own box rather than about the whole puzzle."

Licata wants to see more emphasis on enterprise best practices: "Learning more about enterprise best practices and how companies are leveraging quantum intelligence would be valuable to see if we really want to see the technology move out of science labs and into business value opportunities the C-Suite can't ignore."

Esco echoed the three priorities raised earlier and added one more to the list for 2027: "The three mentioned before and Quantum Safety."

The Throughline

Taken together, these perspectives describe an industry at an inflection point. The science is still advancing — error correction, hardware scaling, and algorithmic discovery remain very much open problems — but the center of gravity is visibly shifting toward commercial application, enterprise budgets, and government strategy. As Baczyk put it, the industry is "on a curve that points upwards." The consensus among these three voices is that the work ahead is less about proving quantum computing can work, and more about building the systems, talent, and use cases that will let it work at scale.