Quantum-aware software engineering: An AI-driven framework for measuring cryptographic agility in enterprise systems

The timely development of quantum computing is a fundamental threat to modern cryptographic systems, which are instantiated by enterprise software. Secure communication, authentication, and data protection rely on classical public-key algorithmic techniques that are likely to become susceptible to large-scale quantum attacks, and there is an urgent shift to quantum-resistant as well as successively cryptographically agile architectures. This article suggests a new AIware software engineering model, Quantum-Aware, is an AI-based measurement system that aims to assess and improve cryptographic agility at the enterprise scale. The framework combines the software engineering, post-quantum cryptography, and artificial intelligence principles to determine how well an organization is prepared to respond to new quantum threats through crypto-mechanisms. The suggested model presents a multi-layered assessment model that examines software architecture, cryptographic dependencies, diversity of algorithms, key management practices and update mechanisms. Complexity of migrations is measured and hard-coded cryptographic primitives are automatically detected in machine learning techniques to predict the effect of an algorithm substitution on system performance and security assurance. The framework can produce a measurable, comparative value, a Cryptographic Agility Index (CAI), that represents a measure of how easy an enterprise system is to move between cryptographic standards when changes are necessary. Moreover, the framework assists in decision-making by providing advanced refactoring strategies and adaptive controls in accordance with the post-quantum requirements, regulatory provisions and the level of risk tolerance.