RQAI-SE: Multi-Layered Ethical and Accountable Quantum AI Engineering

Muhammad Awais; Sabeen Masood; Farah Haneef; Taimoor Riaz; Muhammad Majid Zaman; Madiha Khanam

Authors

Muhammad Awais Dept. Software Engineering, Capital University of Science and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan
Sabeen Masood Dept. Software Engineering, Capital University of Science and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan
Farah Haneef Dept. Software Engineering, Capital University of Science and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan
Taimoor Riaz Dept. Software Engineering, Capital University of Science and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan
Muhammad Majid Zaman Dept. Software Engineering, Capital University of Science and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan
Madiha Khanam Dept. Software Engineering, Capital University of Science and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan

Keywords:

Quantum Software Engineering, Quantum Artificial Intelligence, Responsible AI, Ethical Software Development, Governance in Quantum Systems

Abstract

Introduction/Importance of Study: The application of quantum Artificial Intelligence (QAI) that combines artificial intelligence and quantum computing allows simulation, optimization, and decision-making capabilities never seen before, but introduces ethical and governance issues that are beyond conventional software engineering paradigms.

Novelty statement: In this paper, we introduce the Responsible Quantum-AI Software Engineering (RQAI-SE) framework, a systematic integration of quantum-specific mechanisms for ethics, accountability, fairness, and transparency into the QAI software lifecycle. The framework comprises five hierarchically structured engineering layers, addresses four categories of quantum-specific ethical risks (algorithmic bias, lack of transparency, access inequality, and regulatory gaps), and explicitly maps its components to nine governance pillars established by the World Economic Forum (WEF) — structural contributions that distinguish RQAI-SE from existing QSE frameworks that treat ethics as secondary or post-development concerns.

Material and Method: The study employs a conceptual design methodology grounded in a systematic review of 40 high-quality sources spanning quantum software engineering, AI ethics, and governance (2021–2025). The framework is validated through comparative analysis with existing QSE frameworks Table 1 and criterion-referenced mapping to the WEF nine governance pillars Table 3.

Result and Discussion: The suggested RQAI-SE framework shows how quantum-AI systems can be designed to be both computationally efficient and responsible toward society using human-understandable quantum design, the ethical development cycle of the process, and governance models that are multidisciplinary. In contrast to the more performance-focused QSE strategies, the RQAI-SE directly deals with quantum-specific ethical risks, including but not limited to opacity, amplifying bias of probabilistic guarantees, and governance loopholes, and allows creating trustworthy, inclusive, and accountable. The model also offers a guided basis to align the emerging QAI technologies to the long-term societal values, as well as facilitating scalable and sustainable quantum software development.

Concluding Remarks: RQAI-SE provides an effective and prospective basis of responsible QAI development, under which innovations in quantum intelligence are always within the ethical, social, and governance requirements. The framework identifies five priority areas for future research, including empirical case study validation and international certification standards.

References

Aritra Sarkar, “Automated quantum software engineering,” Autom. Softw. Eng., vol. 31, no. 36, 2024, [Online]. Available: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10515-024-00436-x

G. Bisicchia, J. García-Alonso, J. M. Murillo, and A. Brogi, “From Quantum Software Handcrafting to Quantum Software Engineering,” Proc. - 2024 IEEE Int. Conf. Softw. Anal. Evol. Reengineering - Companion, SANER-C 2024, pp. 149–150, 2024, doi: 10.1109/SANER-C62648.2024.00026.

Alvaro M. Aparicio-Morales, Enrique Moguel, Luis Mariano Bibbo, Alejandro Fernandez, Jose Garcia-Alonso, Juan M. Murillo, “An Overview of Quantum Software Engineering in Latin America,” arXiv:2405.20661, 2024, [Online]. Available: https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.20661

Francisco Valdes-Souto, Hector G. Perez-Gonzalez, Carlos A. Perez-Delgado, “Q-COSMIC: Quantum Software Metrics Based on COSMIC (ISO/IEC19761),” arXiv:2402.08505, 2024, [Online]. Available: https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.08505

Kanishk Dwivedi, Majid Haghparast & Tommi Mikkonen, “Quantum software engineering and quantum software development lifecycle: a survey,” Cluster Comput., vol. 27, pp. 7127–7145, 2024, [Online]. Available: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10586-024-04362-1

Shuangxiang Zhou, Ronghang Chen, Zheng An, Shi-Yao Hou, “Application of Large Language Models to Quantum State Simulation,” arXiv:2410.06629, 2024, [Online]. Available: https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.06629

S. Paul, N. R. Choudhury, B. Pandit, and A. Dawn, “Integration of AI and Quantum Computing in Cybersecurity: A Comprehensive Review,” Integr. AI, Quantum Comput. Semicond. Technol., pp. 287–308, Jan. 2024, doi: 10.4018/979-8-3693-7076-6.ch014.

D. Chauhan, P. Ranka, P. Bahad, and R. Pathak, “Applications of Quantum Artificial Intelligence: A Systematic Review,” Integr. AI, Quantum Comput. Semicond. Technol., pp. 159–182, Jan. 2024, doi: 10.4018/979-8-3693-7076-6.ch008.

T. Y. Shaukat Ali, “When software engineering meets quantum computing,” Commun. ACM, vol. 65, no. 4, pp. 84–88, 2022, [Online]. Available: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3512340

Diego Alonso, Pedro Sánchez, “Engineering the development of quantum programs: Application to the Boolean satisfiability problem,” Adv. Eng. Softw., vol. 173, p. 103216, 2022, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advengsoft.2022.103216.

M. Piattini, M. Serrano, R. Perez-Castillo, G. Petersen, and J. L. Hevia, “Toward a Quantum Software Engineering,” IT Prof., vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 62–66, Jan. 2021, doi: 10.1109/MITP.2020.3019522.

Benjamin Weder, Johanna Barzen, Frank Leymann, Daniel Vietz, “Quantum Software Development Lifecycle,” arXiv:2106.09323, 2021, [Online]. Available: https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.09323

J. Zhao, “Quantum Software Engineering: Landscapes and Horizons,” arXiv:2007.07047, 2020, [Online]. Available: https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.07047

M. Baczyk, R. Pérez-Castillo, and M. Piattini, “Towards a Framework of Architectural Patterns for Quantum Software Engineering,” Proc. - IEEE Quantum Week 2024, QCE 2024, vol. 2, pp. 228–233, 2024, doi: 10.1109/QCE60285.2024.10283.

S. Nagarajan, M. Malarvel, and J. Thangakumar, “A Framework for Quantum based Software Development Process,” 2024 Int. Conf. Adv. Data Eng. Intell. Comput. Syst. ADICS 2024, 2024, doi: 10.1109/ADICS58448.2024.10533595.

A. B. Giuseppe Bisicchia, Jose Garcia-Alonso, Juan M. Murillo, “From Quantum Mechanics to Quantum Software Engineering: A Historical Review,” arXiv:2404.19428, 2024, [Online]. Available: https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.19428

P. Spoletini, “Towards Quantum Requirements Engineering,” Proc. - 31st IEEE Int. Requir. Eng. Conf. Work. REW 2023, pp. 371–374, 2023, doi: 10.1109/REW57809.2023.00072.

M. R. El Aoun, H. Li, F. Khomh, and M. Openja, “Understanding Quantum Software Engineering Challenges An Empirical Study on Stack Exchange Forums and GitHub Issues,” Proc. - 2021 IEEE Int. Conf. Softw. Maint. Evol. ICSME 2021, pp. 343–354, 2021, doi: 10.1109/ICSME52107.2021.00037.

Moses Openja, Mohammad Mehdi Morovati, “Technical debts and faults in open-source quantum software systems: An empirical study,” J. Syst. Softw., vol. 193, p. 111458, 2022, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2022.111458.

Michael Felderer, Davide Taibi, “Software Engineering Challenges for Quantum Computing: Report from the First Working Seminar on Quantum Software Engineering (WSQSE 22),” ACM SIGSOFT Softw. Eng. Notes, vol. 48, no. 2, pp. 29–32, 2023, [Online]. Available: https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3587062.3587071

A. A. K. Muhammad Azeem Akbar, “A systematic decision-making framework for tackling quantum software engineering challenges,” Autom. Softw. Eng., vol. 30, 2023, [Online]. Available: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10515-023-00389-7

Muhammad Azeem Akbar, Arif Ali Khan, “Genetic model-based success probability prediction of quantum software development projects,” Inf. Softw. Technol., vol. 165, p. 107352, 2024, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2023.107352.

Macario Polo, Ignacio García-Rodríguez, Manuel Serrano, Mario Piattini, “Generation of Quantum Software From Truth Tables,” Softw. Pract. Exp., vol. 55, no. 8, 2025, [Online]. Available: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/spe.3426?af=R

Aakash Ahmad, Muhammad Waseem, Peng Liang, Mahdi Fehmideh, Arif Ali Khan, David Georg Reichelt, Tommi Mikkonen, “Engineering Software Systems for Quantum Computing as a Service: A Mapping Study,” arXiv:2303.14713, 2023, [Online]. Available: https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.14713

D. Fortunato, J. CAMPOS and R. ABREU, “Mutation Testing of Quantum Programs: A Case Study With Qiskit,” IEEE Trans. Quantum Eng., vol. 3, pp. 1–17, 2022, doi: 10.1109/TQE.2022.3195061.

Matteo Paltenghi, Michael Pradel, “Bugs in Quantum computing platforms: an empirical study,” Proc. ACM Program. Lang., 2022, [Online]. Available: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3527330

M. P. Antonio García de la Barrera, Ignacio García-Rodríguez de Guzmán, Macario Polo, “Quantum software testing: State of the art,” J. Softw. Evol. Process, 2023, [Online]. Available: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smr.2419

Matteo Paltenghi, Michael Pradel, “Analyzing Quantum Programs with LintQ: A Static Analysis Framework for Qiskit,” Proc. ACM Softw. Eng., 2024, [Online]. Available: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3660802

Mst Shamima Aktar, Peng Liang, “Architecture decisions in quantum software systems: An empirical study on Stack Exchange and GitHub,” Inf. Softw. Technol., vol. 177, p. 107587, 2025, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2024.107587.

Shaukat Ali, Tao Yue, “On the Need of Quantum-Oriented Paradigm,” QP4SE 2023 - Proc. 2nd Int. Work. Quantum Program. Softw. Eng. Co-located with ESEC/FSE 2023, 2023, [Online]. Available: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3617570.3617868

Asmar Muqeet, Tao Yue, “Quantum Software Testing 101,” Proc. - Int. Conf. Softw. Eng., 2024, [Online]. Available: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3639478.3643059

Muneera Bano, Shaukat Ali, Didar Zowghi, “Envisioning Responsible Quantum Software Engineering and Quantum Artificial Intelligence,” arXiv:2410.23972, 2025, [Online]. Available: https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.23972

Valerio Terragni, Partha Roop, Kelly Blincoe, “The Future of Software Engineering in an AI-Driven World,” arXiv:2406.07737, 2024, [Online]. Available: https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.07737

“Rigene Project - Quantum computing Principles.” Accessed: Apr. 22, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://www.rigeneproject.org/cognitive-news/quantum-computing-principles

Ketai Qiu, Niccolò Puccinelli, “From Today’s Code to Tomorrow’s Symphony: The AI Transformation of Developer’s Routine by 2030,” ACM Trans. Softw. Eng. Methodol., vol. 34, no. 5, pp. 1–17, 2025, [Online]. Available: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3709353

Nikhil Patnaik, Joseph Hallett, Awais Rashid, “Saltzer & Schroeder for 2030: Security engineering principles in a world of AI,” arXiv:2407.05710, 2024, [Online]. Available: https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.05710

Enrique Moguel, Javier Rojo, David Valencia, Javier Berrocal, Jose Garcia-Alonso & Juan M. Murillo, “Quantum service-oriented computing: current landscape and challenges,” Softw. Qual. J., vol. 30, pp. 983–1002, 2022, [Online]. Available: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11219-022-09589-y

Muhammad Azeem Akbar, Arif Ali Khan, Sajjad Mahmood, Saima Rafi, “Quantum Software Engineering: A New Genre of Computing,” arXiv:2211.13990, 2022, [Online]. Available: https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.13990

J. G.-A. Juan Manuel Murillo, “Quantum Software Engineering: Roadmap and Challenges Ahead,” ACM Trans. Softw. Eng. Methodol., vol. 34, no. 5, 2025, [Online]. Available: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3712002

N. Arora and P. Kumar, “Sustainable Quantum Computing,” Commun. ACM, vol. 69, no. 1, pp. 84–90, Jan. 2026, doi: 10.1145/3745782.