According to the article, the 2026 "quantum-readiness" deadline is the expiration date for sensitive data, as adversaries are currently harvesting encrypted traffic in the "Harvest Now, Decrypt Later" (HNDL) era, waiting for fault-tolerant quantum computers to break current RSA and ECC standards. The article states that AI systems relying on the Model Context Protocol (MCP) or similar architectures need to transition to NIST-compliant Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) immediately. The first pillar is conducting a quantum-ready cryptographic inventory, requiring a granular audit of every transport layer in the AI stack, including where RAG contexts go, where training weights live, and who has access to agent credentials. According to the Cloud Security Alliance: Quantum Risk Reports, the #1 failure point in enterprise quantum readiness is a total lack of a cryptographic bill of materials. The second pillar is implementing hybridization as a "belt and suspenders" strategy, encapsulating data using both classical algorithms (like ECC) and FIPS-approved PQC standards (like ML-KEM), so if a hole is found in a new PQC algorithm, security remains anchored by the classical standard.