Embodiments herein implement quantum annealing with a driver Hamiltonian that uses oscillating fields to advantageously obtain a quantum speedup over classical computing techniques. For a many-body quantum system formed with qubits, the oscillating fields drive the qubits so as to independently modulate the magnitudes and/or directions of transverse terms of the driver Hamiltonian. In particular, embodiments provide a quantum speedup for two types of first-order phase transitions: the paramagnet-to-spin-glass transition, and transitions between distinct “bit string” states. The resulting speedup is robust against energy fluctuations (e.g., 1/f noise), in contrast to other strategies like variable-rate annealing. Each oscillating field may be an oscillating electric field or magnetic field. The oscillating fields can be implemented with superconducting flux qubits by coupling oscillating fluxes and/or voltages to the flux qubits.