A key issue in implementing quantum information protocols is to find a physical platform that incorporates often contradictory characteristics and properties. For example, one requires weak interactions with the environment to prevent decoherence, but strong interactions to generate entanglement of appropriate states. Many such physical platforms have been proposed and investigated experimentally, from NMR, to quantum dots, optical systems, trapped ions, and much more. In this talk, we discuss AMO platforms in which strong interactions can be switched on to realize gates, and switched off to store qubits. We will explore how Rydberg atoms and ultracold polar molecules exhibit these switchable interactions, and the prospect for their use as viable platforms.