Zapata released the world's first enterprise Quantum Computing Adoption Report

In order to better understand the progress of enterprises in adopting quantum computing and the challenges they face, in December 2021, Zapata computing, a quantum software company, investigated 300 executives (Chief Information Officer, chief technology officer and other executives at or above the vice president level) of large enterprises around the world, and released the world's first enterprise Quantum Computing Adoption report last week. It is estimated that the quantum computing revenue will exceed US $250 million and the budget will exceed US $1 million in 2021.

The survey results clearly describe the development trend of the market, but also draw a clear line between those enterprises that want to win at the moment and those enterprises that have not clearly used quantum computing methods.

Key Findings

1. Quantum computing has moved from the edge to the core of digital transformation

• quantum opponents are now in the minority. 74% of enterprise executives agree that "enterprises that do not adopt quantum computing solutions will lag behind".

• quantum has now passed the planning stage. 69% of global enterprises say they have adopted or plan to adopt quantum computing next year. Enterprises that have adopted in some form account for nearly one third of the market, or 29%.

• the United States is a leader in the adoption of quantum technology, followed by Canada and China. However, given the small sample size of several countries, the global data in this report may be inconsistent with other reports.

2. Early Quantum adopters set the stage for their global counterparts

• companies that take the lead in adopting quantum technology are setting an example for other markets - because they are already on the road of advantage, and 12% of early or leading quantum adopters hope to gain some form of competitive advantage next year; 41% expect to gain some form of competitive advantage within two years. For a long time, people have thought that the quantum era is still a few years away - even decades - and now the situation is different.

• American companies report that they are closest to quantum competitive advantage, and 12% of enterprises begin to adopt quantum technology and hope to gain an advantage within a year, maybe even now.

• Germany is most optimistic about gaining a competitive advantage through quantum in two years. 44% of German respondents predict to gain an advantage in two years, followed by Canada 38%, Britain and Australia 33% and the United States 31%.

• according to 60% of those who have invested in quantum or plan to invest in quantum next year, the driving factor behind the adoption of quantum technology is that quantum technology will bring better business performance and performance.

3. Cutting edge lessons in quantum adoption

• the most advanced quantum adopters are 70% more likely to invest in quantum to promote labor development than all enterprises.

• compared with other enterprises, the most leading quantum adopters and enterprises with an investment of more than $1 million are more motivated by their first mover advantage. Those enterprises that have invested more than $1 million in the quantum field are also 50% more likely to protect intellectual property rights than other enterprises. Considering the number of early technology adopters in the global sample (44%, while the proportion accepted by the majority or later is 56%), quantum is indeed becoming a new competitive weapon in the enterprise technology library.

4. Machine learning paves the way for recent quantization, especially in the United States

• machine learning (ML) and data analysis are the main use cases of early and leading adopters of quantum computing. Especially in the United States, 71% of enterprises are investing in ml and data analysis, compared with 51% in the world. This is intuitive because these enterprises already have ml talents, algorithms and applications. Ml is also the most likely use case to provide near-term value for enterprises, because problems that are difficult to be solved by classical machine learning, such as unsupervised generation model and semi supervised learning for enhancing prediction model data set, are more suitable for quantum devices.

5. Quantum investment has become cautious

• on the path of adopting quantum computing, 28% of global enterprises have invested more than $1 million. This is in sharp contrast to the past $100000 R & D budget.

• early technology adopters invested more extensively in quantum computing. 37% of early adopters had a quantum budget of more than $1 million, compared with 13% of late adopters.

6. Quantum is a team activity that needs to be trusted

• up to 96% of respondents believe that their enterprises cannot successfully adopt quantum computing without the help of reliable technology partners.

• when selecting external partners, enterprises first consider the forward compatibility of partner solutions (48%), followed by the ease of use of solutions (42%) and the difficulty of Solution Integration (41%).

• among the matters that enterprises are most concerned about quantum computing suppliers, published research ranks fourth (38%), indicating that quantum is breaking through the academic field and entering the actual enterprise business.

7. What are the leading quantum adopters doing?

• enterprises adopting quantum technology are making preparations in many aspects: 51% of enterprises are looking for talents and establishing internal teams; 49% of enterprises are experimenting and building proof of concept; 48% are running experiments on quantum hardware or simulators, and 46% are building new applications.

8. Vendor lock in is the biggest concern

• enterprises want both cake and cake: although almost everyone (96%) said they needed the help of trusted suppliers to succeed in quantum plan, 73% of enterprises were worried about supplier lock-in. Another 39% believe that supplier lock-in is an obstacle to the adoption of quantum plans.

• the leading quantum adopters are also more likely to focus on supplier lock-in (92%), compared with 73% of all quantum adopters. These enterprises do not want to lose flexibility, because quantum is not universal, and they do not want to be locked in a proprietary method or solution.

9. Complexity is the biggest obstacle to the adoption of quantum

• the biggest obstacle to adopting quantum computing is the complexity of integrating quantum computing with existing enterprise it stacks, which is faced by 49% of respondents.

• the complexity of quantum computing is undeniable, and the enterprise IT architecture is also very complex. But with the help of external suppliers, early and leading quantum adopters are overcoming these complexities. Managing this complexity requires new workflows to coordinate the intersection of new quantum and existing classical components.

10. Quantum computing is still not easy to explain

• 96% of respondents explained to their friends that quantum computing takes more than 10 minutes at the party.

Conclusion

The current survey shows that early adopters of quantum computing technology hope to gain a competitive advantage over their peers soon. Most global enterprises are now planning to adopt quantum computing or have begun to adopt it. Once the early leaders gain an advantage, other enterprises will urgently need to speed up their quantum adoption strategy.

Nevertheless, this survey also reveals some key obstacles that enterprises need to overcome on the way to obtain quantum competitive advantage. The complexity of the technology is still the biggest obstacle to overcome, so early adopters are working with external suppliers to overcome it. At the same time, supplier locking will be a continuous problem. Enterprises hope that any supplier they cooperate with has flexibility and forward compatibility.

Finally, a new application-based and hardware independent quantum computing method is needed. This method is driven by compelling business problems, giving priority to interoperability with existing classical computing resources and forward compatibility with future quantum technologies.

Report link：https://www.zapatacomputing.com/publications/enterprise-survey/