The Quantum Economy Is No Longer A Metaphor

Insider Brief:

• The quantum economy describes a real economic environment shaped by uncertainty, interdependence, and compounding effects, where classical assumptions about growth, risk, and coordination increasingly fall short.

• The framework reframes quantum and AI not as distant technologies, but as forces already reshaping security timelines, discovery processes, and decision-making structures across finance, science, and governance.

• The core challenge is human orientation within complex systems: as intelligence and optimization extend beyond human domains, leadership shifts from prediction and control toward adaptability, sense-making, and responsibility.

• The Quantum Economy Reception during Davos week, hosted by tomorrowmensch, brings this conversation into practice, convening leaders to focus on strategic clarity and governance in an era defined less by certainty than by exponential change.

Economic eras are often defined by the language they use to describe value. The industrial age focused on labor and output. The digital economy reorganized around information, platforms, and scale. Today, the global economy is increasingly shaped by frontier technologies such as quantum, AI, advanced computing, and new physical and biological capabilities that challenge existing assumptions about growth, risk, and coordination.

Within this context, the quantum economy has emerged as more than a metaphor. It describes an economic environment shaped by uncertainty, interdependence, irreversibility, and exponential asymmetry, one where decisions compound faster than institutions adapt, and where the boundary between technological progress and human agency becomes harder to define.

The term was first articulated by Anders Indset, who coined The Quantum Economy to describe what follows the “New Economy” narrative of digital transformation. Current state, this framing still stands, but alongside renewed urgency. The questions raised by the quantum economy now sit at the center of leadership, governance, capital allocation, and long-term technological strategy.

That is why, during Davos week, leaders from industry, investment, technology, and policy will gather for the Quantum Economy Reception, hosted by tomorrowmensch. The event is an invite-only convening of 120 global decision-makers focused on shared orientation: how to think clearly and make durable decisions in a world where classical economic assumptions no longer fully apply.

The reception coincides with the release of Indset’s new book, The Quantum Economy, which provides a structured framework for understanding this transition.

From Technology Curiosity to Economic Architecture

Quantum technologies are often discussed as future infrastructure. They are painted as powerful, promising, and perpetually “five to ten years away.” That framing, however, misses their broader impact. Quantum systems can also be defined by the way they force new models of risk, value creation, and coordination.

In finance, the threat of “harvest now, decrypt later” compresses traditional security timelines and accelerates migration decisions. In materials science and chemistry, quantum simulation challenges the assumption that discovery must proceed linearly. In artificial intelligence, the convergence of probabilistic reasoning, learning systems, and quantum-native approaches reshapes how intelligence itself is modeled and applied.

Taken together, these developments expose a growing mismatch between exponential technological capability and decision-making structures designed for stability rather than volatility. Institutions optimized for incremental change increasingly struggle to operate under conditions of compounding uncertainty. This is the disparity the quantum economy seeks to name.

Human Agency in Complex Systems

In The Quantum Economy book, Indset makes the case that the defining challenge of this era is not technological acceleration itself, but human orientation within increasingly complex systems. As AI systems challenge traditional notions of authorship and decision-making, and quantum technologies redefine what is computationally possible, humanity faces what he describes as a final narcissistic injury: the realization that intelligence and optimization are no longer exclusively human domains.

Rather than framing this as either technological optimism or existential risk, the book positions it as a structural question. What role does human agency play in systems where uncertainty, nonlinearity, and interdependence are the norm?

This is where Indset introduces concepts such as Becoming Organizations, anticipatory leadership, and Triangular Alchemy as organizational and governance frameworks designed for environments where prediction is limited and adaptability becomes a strategic requirement. The central claim is not that technology replaces human judgment, but that human understanding, responsibility, and sense-making become even more essential as systems grow more complex.

The Quantum Economy: Context, Conversation, and Continuity

Quantum is an emerging economic force that must be understood across technical, political, and human dimensions. Through editorial coverage, research analysis, and the Quantum Economy podcast, the goal is to build sustained context around how quantum technologies intersect with capital, governance, and long-term strategy.

The Quantum Economy Reception in Davos extends this work offline, providing a focused forum for dialogue among leaders actively shaping these transitions. The event, led by tomorrowmensch, reflects a shared effort to convene the quantum ecosystem around questions of orientation rather than hype.

Davos has always functioned as a mirror of the global system, reflecting both ambition and uncertainty. This year, that reflection is even sharper. Familiar narratives of growth, disruption, and innovation are no longer sufficient to explain the forces reshaping markets and institutions.

The quantum economy is a lens that helps decision-makers confront uncertainty directly, rethink capitalism without discarding it, and place human judgment back at the center of technological progress. The conversations beginning this week will not resolve these tensions, but they will help define which questions matter next. In an era of exponential change, the ability to ask those questions clearly may be one of the most valuable leadership capabilities to have.