Capgemini research has revealed that organisations are increasing investment and exploration in quantum technologies, with 23% expecting their first commercial applications in three to five years
In addition, 20% of organisations surveyed by the Capgemini Research Institute are expecting to increase investments in quantum technology within the next year.
According to the research, China (43%) and the Netherlands (42%) have the largest share of companies working on or planning to work on quantum technologies, followed by Germany and the UK (each on 26%), versus 23% on average globally.
While the vast majority of companies working on quantum started over two years ago, 28% of them stated that they had done so in the last two years.
What’s more, nearly 20% have reached implementation stage — experiments or proofs of concepts — and a further 23% have identified relevant use cases and are preparing for implementation.
These companies intend to leverage the tech in a number of ways, from improving sustainability, to securing information, through to medical sensors and mitigating harmful industrial gases.
However, seven in 10 organisations working on quantum agreed that due to long product development cycles in their businesses, they need to invest time now in building a base, including the right skills, use cases and partnerships.
Financial institutions in particular are looking to utilise quantum for more accurate pricing of risky assets, optimising portfolios for better returns, and detecting fraud — a trend demonstrated with HSBC‘s new partnership with IBM, announced earlier this week.
“Recent breakthroughs in quantum technologies seek to herald a new era for computing, sensors and cyber security within the next five years,” said Pascal Brier, chief innovation officer at Capgemini, and member of the Group Executive Committee.
“Our research confirms that more and more organisations are getting educated about the technology and experimenting with real-life quantum technology applications. In the past two years, we’ve seen leaders emerge in the financial industry and a lot of traction in automotive, in particular.
“Getting ready today is critical to be able to capitalise on these new generation technologies when commercial applications become mainstream. It is why our team of quantum technology experts across the globe is focused on unlocking this potential for clients.”
Elham Kashefi, professor of quantum computing at the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, and co-founder of VeriQloud Ltd., was one of over 30 industry experts consulted by Capgemini for its study.
Kashefi commented: “It can take another decade to build a fault-tolerant, universal quantum computer. However, we can still get real impactful applications on quantum devices in the near future provided we optimise and adapt quantum algorithms for the emerging noisy hardware equipped with tailor made verification processes.”
Capgemini surveyed 857 organisations and 200 executives globally who are working on quantum technology, as well as conducting 30 in-depth interviews with quantum practitioners. The full report can be found here.
Related:
How quantum computing is helping businesses to meet objectives — Johannes Oberreuter, Quantum Computing practice lead and data scientist at Reply, spoke to Information Age about how quantum computing is helping businesses to meet objectives
Should decision makers be concerned by the threat of quantum? — Executives are wary about the possible threat of quantum, but how concerned should they be, and when should they start getting worried?
