What Industries Are Most Likely To Benefit First From Quantum Computing?

After seeing how quantum computing is taking over as the next big thing in tech (and other industries), a Censuswide survey for D-Wave Quantum found that 41% of UK enterprises surveyed expect quantum computing could generate more than £100 million in value within one year. It also found that 65% of business leaders surveyed already use quantum computing or run pilot programmes.

Murray Thom, vice president of quantum technology evangelism at D-Wave, said, “The era of enterprise quantum computing adoption has arrived. Companies are no longer asking if they should explore quantum, but how quickly they can implement it.”

What Are The Numbers Saying?

The responses from the survey indicate that early use of quantum will probably start with optimisation tasks in daily operations and resource planning after 90% identified workforce scheduling as an area needing improved optimisation.

Resource allocation reached 89%, supply chain optimisation reached 88%, and manufacturing processes reached 82%.

These tasks involve large sets of variables and many possible outcomes: a manufacturer may coordinate production schedules across multiple sites, while a logistics operator may manage movement of goods between warehouses and distribution hubs. Employers need to do things like organise thousands of shift patterns every week.

So, conventional computing would handle such calculations, but it does become a bit more complex once operations scale and variables multiply. This all looks good to these industries because optimisation problems match the type of calculations quantum systems process.

Thom said, “This study shows that UK organisations increasingly see quantum computing as a tool for tackling real business challenges, from supply chain optimisation to manufacturing to AI. As a result, we are beginning to see the Quantum Effect take shape across the UK market.”

Manufacturing systems, logistics networks and workforce scheduling therefore stand as early candidates for commercial use.

Could AI Systems Gain Early Quantum Benefit?

AI needs more computing capacity and heavy processing workloads and business leaders examine ways to improve efficiency and outcomes from existing systems.

The Censuswide and D-Wave survey found that 35% of UK business leaders said AI delivered some ROI, even though results were less than they had expected it to be.

Energy use has become a concern for organisations running large AI workloads. The survey found that 62% of respondents questioned whether existing energy infrastructure could support continued expansion of AI and other compute intensive technologies.

Where organisations see value in quantum has to do with how they believe it may support complex computational workloads that challenge conventional systems.

The survey says 87% of the respondents believed quantum computing could, in fact, support optimisation of AI related processes and computational tasks.

Which Sectors Receive Government Quantum Funding?

Government funding is one of the ways to assess where early commercial use may develop.

The UK’s Commercialising Quantum Technologies Challenge invested more than £174 million, supported by more than £390 million from industry, to develop quantum based products and services.

The programme identified automotive, healthcare, infrastructure, telecommunications, cybersecurity and defence as priority sectors.

Healthcare receives interest due to demand for advanced research and data analysis work. Telecommunications organisations study system performance and communications systems. Cybersecurity programmes examine methods for protecting digital systems and information.

Automotive research focuses on transport systems, engineering processes and operational efficiency. Infrastructure projects also receive funding for quantum related development.

This is all important for startups especially, because funding priorities give us an idea on where commercial use may first develop once technology becomes usable at scale.