TCS looks to quantum computing to solve complex ‘what if’ problems

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is exploring quantum computing to solve complex problems ranging from personalised cancer treatments and financial portfolio optimisation to molecule discovery and severe-weather prediction, as conventional computing architectures struggle to address such challenges at scale.

Speaking at IBM’s Think 2026 event in Mumbai, TCS Chief Technology Officer Harrick Vin said the company’s interest stemmed from the technology’s potential to tackle problems involving an enormous number of possible outcomes and decisions.

Mr. Vin outlined four layers of reasoning intelligence: descriptive, diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive. While conventional computing is relatively effective at understanding what is happening, why it is happening and, to some extent, what might happen next, more complex predictive and prescriptive problems require evaluating numerous possibilities.

“Solving sort of more complex predictive and prescriptive problems requires you to solve a lot of what if and if what problems,” he said.

While “what if” explores the possible consequences of an action, “if what” works backwards from a desired outcome to determine the action required to achieve it.

In healthcare, for instance, identifying the most effective drug for an individual cancer patient could involve evaluating numerous treatment options. Quantum computing could eventually help address such computationally intensive challenges, opening new possibilities for precision medicine.

Beyond incremental productivity

Mr. Vin urged businesses to look beyond marginal efficiency gains and identify areas where quantum computing could fundamentally transform customer outcomes.

Using precision oncology as an example, he said the objective should not merely be to improve doctors’ productivity but to make a tangible difference to patients’ lives.

“It’s not about improving the productivity of doctors by a little bit here and there,” he said. “It is the difference between actually saving lives or not.”

Banking and financial services, particularly portfolio optimisation, and healthcare and pharmaceuticals, including molecule and protein discovery, are among the sectors where Mr. Vin sees the greatest potential.

However, he cautioned that the technology remains at an early stage. “We are in an early stage of AI era. We are probably even in an earlier stage of the quantum era,” he said.

A hybrid computing future

Mr. Vin envisaged a future computing architecture combining conventional central processing units, graphics processing units (GPUs), tensor processing units (TPUs) and quantum processing units (QPUs). Applications would need to distribute workloads across these architectures according to their capabilities and costs.

He also highlighted neuromorphic computing as a potential route to low-power, low-cost intelligence at edge devices, alongside the need for software to adapt to evolving computing infrastructure.

Quantum computing also poses cybersecurity challenges, as advances could eventually compromise existing cryptographic protocols, he said, adding organisations must therefore prepare to migrate towards quantum-safe encryption.

TCS joined IBM and the Andhra Pradesh government in a quantum-computing initiative announced in May 2025. Mr. Vin said TCS had chosen to invest early to build capabilities before the technology became mainstream.