The 55th World Economic Forum Annual Meeting convened in Davos under the theme “Collaboration for the Intelligent Age.” Against a backdrop of rapid AI and quantum advancements, global leaders from finance, healthcare, cybersecurity, and technology gathered to discuss how AI and quantum technologies are shaping the future. SandboxAQ was at the center of these discussions, engaging with industry executives, policymakers, and researchers on how Large Quantitative Models (LQMs) and quantum-inspired solutions are solving real-world challenges.
A recurring theme throughout Davos 2025 was the role of AI in biopharma. In conversations with Jim Breyer (CEO, Breyer Capital), Lu Zhang (Managing Partner, Fusion Fund), and Anthony Viel (Chief Executive Officer, Deloitte Canada), it was clear that the traditional drug development pipeline – costing billions and often taking over a decade – must evolve.
Large Language Models (LLMs) are having a demonstrable impact, but they are limited to unlocking patterns and insights from existing literature – making them less effective at discovering treatments for more challenging medical conditions. On the other hand, LQMs trained on foundational equations of chemistry, biology, and physics enable researchers to explore the depths of chemistry space to discover new molecules and model their complex interactions with unprecedented accuracy. Virtually screening millions of molecules leads to more rapid and effective candidate selection, cutting years and millions of dollars from the process, with the potential to dramatically improve the current 90% failure rate in clinical trials. Researchers at UCSF, Sanofi, The Michael J. Fox Foundation, and others are currently leveraging LQMs with great success.
The use of LQMs extends beyond drug discovery to medical diagnostics as well. In cardiology, LQMs paired with advanced sensors are enabling the analysis of magnetic fields of the heart, rather than just its electrical activity, promising earlier and more accurate cardiac disease detection.
Together, these advancements are helping to build a future where personalized medicine is more precise, cost-effective, and widely accessible.
In the rapidly evolving cyber landscape, AI presents both new opportunities and growing risks. Discussions in Davos with Accenture, Deloitte, and EY underscored the need for organizations to act now to protect against today’s AI-powered attacks and tomorrow’s quantum security risks.
Accenture and SandboxAQ’s joint report, AI Impacts on Quantum Security, highlighted how adversaries are leveraging AI to optimize quantum algorithms that threaten traditional cryptographic methods. This necessitates a proactive defense strategy, where companies assess and migrate their cryptographic inventory before vulnerabilities are exposed. SandboxAQ’s AQtive Guard platform is playing a key role in helping enterprises and governments fortify their cybersecurity infrastructure, safeguard cryptographic assets from AI-powered threats, and ensure long-term data protection in the quantum era.
AI is also driving a fundamental shift in the banking and financial services industry. Here, LLMs have delivered efficiency gains in areas such as customer service. However, LQMs trained on quantitative data are transforming how financial institutions approach risk management, portfolio optimization, fraud detection, and more – moving beyond process optimization to true value creation. At Davos, executives from JP Morgan Chase, BNP Paribas, EY, and Alger Asset Management highlighted the power of these models to navigate complex financial landscapes.
LQMs analyze high-dimensional financial data, identifying patterns and correlations that human analysts might overlook. These models enhance portfolio resilience, improve risk forecasting, and optimize tax structures, ensuring that financial institutions remain competitive in a rapidly shifting economic environment.
As AI models grow in size, complexity and usage, so do their energy requirements. This rapid expansion presents new challenges for global energy grids – but one that AI itself can help solve. At a closed-door, pre-WEF session in Abu Dhabi, energy and AI leaders – including Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and SandboxAQ – discussed strategies for sustainable AI growth.
A key insight from these conversations is that current clean energy technologies alone won’t meet future AI energy needs. To address this, SandboxAQ is partnering with leaders including NOVONIX to use LQMs to model new battery chemistries, accelerate testing, and discover new materials beyond lithium-ion. These next-generation batteries can help make electric vehicles more efficient and optimize energy storage from renewable sources. Additionally, these models are driving advancements in grid optimization, ensuring a stable and efficient energy supply for AI workloads.
Davos 2025 also highlighted the urgent need for a new generation of AI and quantum experts and the role of private sector-academia collaboration in training a workforce with expertise in both AI and specialized domains such as finance, healthcare, and cybersecurity.
Paul Alivisatos, President of the University of Chicago, emphasized interdisciplinary training, from undergraduate computational thinking to PhD-level AI and quantum research, as part of the university's collaborations with SandboxAQ, IBM, and several U.S. National Labs. Meanwhile, MIT’s Ramesh Raskar stressed the importance of balancing scientific rigor with creativity and problem-solving, advocating for AI-powered mentorship models to scale guidance and training for emerging talent.
SandboxAQ’s residency program, now active in 45 universities, is designed to develop professionals that advance AI and quantum technologies in their various fields. The program provides hands-on experience and fosters interdisciplinary collaboration, while also expanding initiatives to cultivate entrepreneurial talent, ensuring the next wave of AI pioneers can build and scale transformative technologies.
Davos 2025 saw a fundamental shift in the AI narrative. While the past few years have focused on LLMs for content creation and process optimization, the years ahead will be about quantitative AI-driven breakthroughs – better medicines and products, resilient cybersecurity, optimized financial systems, and sustainable energy solutions.
SandboxAQ, alongside its partners, is driving this transformation through the power of LQMs. The convergence of AI and quantum technologies is a catalyst for global change across numerous industries and the public sector. The challenge now is ensuring we collaborate effectively to harness its full potential.
