Making Sense of Advanced Technology: Quantum Computing and IBM watsonx in the IBM Innovation Studio

In this final podcast of the season, hosts Jessica Lidh and Kristin Rydland sit down with Harry Munroe, a Client Engagement Leader and Quantum Ambassador at IBM’s Washington, D.C. Innovation Studio. Harry demystifies the frontier of quantum computing, framing it not as a replacement for classical computers but as a new paradigm for solving different kinds of problems. The conversation centers on the unique, educator-first mission of the Innovation Studio – a space where clients, from CIOs to high school students, can explore technologies like AI and quantum without sales pressure, starting instead with a deep understanding of their organizational challenges and maturity. Harry shares compelling insights into IBM’s long-term research ethos, its commitment to open-source education, and a tangible example of how the studio helped a school district solve a communication crisis by focusing first on data and policy. The discussion culminates with an exciting look at the impending era of “quantum advantage,” marking a pivotal moment where these machines will demonstrably outperform classical computers, fueled by a collaborative and trust-driven scientific community.

The Purpose of the IBM Innovation Studio

“I’ve… I feel really fortunate to work in this really interesting team. The Innovation Studio is a place where we can… Gather together and talk about new technologies… People come in with all sorts of different ideas, preconceived notions about either what IBM does, or what these various technologies do… And, help them understand the ways that… The industry is moving, and how… our company is thinking about that and trying to chase and also influence, influence the market for technology.”

Who Clients Meet at the Innovation Studio

“When they come in, they’ll encounter people like myself, technology educators, tinkerers, docents of our technology… They’ll also encounter data scientists and, and engineers, people from across our business, technologists that have experience delivering these technologies. They also will interact with salespeople… So, yeah, it’s, quite a variety of different technologists, salespeople, researchers, consultants, and we bring in whoever we need to make a great session.”

How Engagements Start: Assessing Maturity First

“For not knowing something, not being able to answer a question, or not knowing what somebody else is talking about, and feeling embarrassment over that. So, we try to throw all of that out the window as soon as we can, and talk about the… The real reason that the client is in there, to make their organization work better and to solve the problems that they have for their users… we almost always start with a time for us each to talk to each other… the client or business partner that is interested in IBM will talk about their goals. Their problems, the things that they’ve tried in the past… we can kind of get a sense of their maturity journey, because different clients and business partners need different help, depending on where they are.”

IBM’s Open & Accessible Approach to Quantum Education

“The even cooler thing about that is that most of this is freely available online for anyone to learn. So, if you go to our IBM Qiskit, Q-I-S-K-I-T, YouTube channel, you can learn a lot of this yourself. If you go to IBM.com slash quantum, you can go to our resources page, and all of a sudden, you’re… you’re learning on our quantum learning platform. Most of the resources that I’ve been learning from are actually freely available that IBM makes available to everybody, so that’s, really cool.”

A Real-World Example: Solving a School’s Communication Challenge

“We were… Talking about some challenges, for a school system. And the school system has, Challenges as to any organization… as any organization does… being able to keep people in the loop is really important when you have anxious parents, making sure that they want their kids to get the best education possible. These are very political, concerns… And so communication is really important, but it’s… it’s enabled by the right kind of information architecture… We need to have lists of names and numbers, right? Who to call, right? So, so that’s at the very basic level, the kinds of information we need. And what kinds of policies we need to have.”

The Exciting Horizon: Quantum Advantage

“What’s really exciting to me is that these computers are continuing to get better and better, and we’re getting to the point where we are seeing quantum advantage start to emerge… Quantum advantage we define as The time when a quantum computer, working alone or with a classical computer… Can do something better, solve some sort of… solve some sort of problem, do some sort of per… some sort of processing task. Better than a classical computer could alone. That’s either more efficiently, faster, more cheaply, and we’re getting to that point.”