By: Bharat Trivedi and Parag Mhaiske

The answer to why Quantum Technology is unique and different from classical technology lies in its wave-particle. The wave-particle of quantum systems that gives rise to special features and can be exploited to gain a technological advantage is called Quantum Technology. Quantum Technology is set to provide the next wave of technological development in society. It has the potential to solve many complex scientific and engineering problems that are otherwise impossible with classical technologies.

There is a great deal of interest in Quantum Technology and its alleged solutions, and an increasing number of businesses are concentrating on creating new quantum technology. The “second quantum revolution,” brought on by this event would usher in a new level of hitherto unattainable technologies.

According to experts, developments in the fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, Cryptography, Edge Computing, Blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), and Optimization may also lead to significant advances in Quantum Technology.

Adoption of Quantum Technology

Quantum Technology provides a platform for upgrading digital communications, applications, content, and commerce. Today’s economies and industries are still investigating its early uses.

Here is an example of how different sectors might consider the relevance of Quantum Technology (Quantum Computing, Quantum Communication, and Quantum Sensing) in their fields.

The Professionals:

The professionals adopting Quantum Technologies have been in the telecommunication, media, and technology industries. This is mainly because Quantum Computing and Quantum Communications have been the main areas of innovation, research, and investment in the last few years. Quantum Computing is one of the most disruptive technologies in the next decade.

Quantum Technologies will accelerate delivery by modeling network optimization problems and secure and encrypted communications using Quantum Cryptography. Quantum Technologies can also be utilized for developing systems that are resistant to attacks by a quantum computer.

Since cryptography entails most use cases related to messaging, transmission, securing tokens, and other security aspects, there will be a global demand for Quantum Cryptography.

The Amateurs:

The amateurs in adopting Quantum Technologies are industries like automobile, chemicals, life science, aerospace, defense, banking, and finance. The use cases in these industries heavily depend on Quantum Computing, communications, and sensing.

Some of the ways Quantum Technologies will accelerate delivery in pharma companies would accelerate experimentation cycles with high throughput and reduce the number of development cycles. Quantum Computing can be used for optimizing clinical trials through patient identification and classification. Computer Assisted Drug Discovery (CADD) can be made more effective by accurately predicting molecular properties.

In the banking and finance sector, simulating large portfolios and optimizing them, quick calculations of insurance premium rates, and solving transaction settlement problems, would be made possible in an accelerated and deterministic manner.

The automobile industry is implementing multiple experiments using quantum machine learning for autonomous vehicle navigation algorithms and early detection of anomalies in the production process. Quantum simulations for improving vehicle design and analyzing vehicle crash behavior are only a few use cases that will make life easier for delivery teams.

The Beginners and Bystanders:

Industries like consumer goods, insurance, travel, logistics, energy, materials, and advanced industries are still beginners, while healthcare, public and professional services are still bystanders.

Enterprises in the transportation, professional services, and telecommunications industries are capitalizing on Quantum Technology’s promise of speed, efficiency, and reliability.

Breakthroughs in quantum materials and sensing research will bring a quantum leap in pushing these industries to the amateur stage in the next few years.

From solving complex optimization algorithms for predicting traffic to minimizing delivery time by solving vehicle problems to giving solutions for global and local supply chain problems, quantum technologies show tremendous potential.

Challenges with Quantum Technology

Quantum science is still an evolving field, and existing knowledge gaps limit technical readiness. Further research and experimentation are required to prove the superiority of Quantum Technology over traditional ones. Recent developments are making the qubits cleaner, the gates more efficient, and the algorithms more complex. However, first-generation Quantum systems are facing the issues of noise, hardware breakdown, and lack of scalability.

The construction of fault-tolerant, large-scale Quantum devices that keep qubits isolated from heat, vibration, and stray atoms, is one of the most formidable hurdles in the Quantum Technology domain. Some issues include decoherence, a process in which the qubits entangled with each other may also get entangled with the environment, causing them to change Quantum states spontaneously and causing information stored by the Quantum computer to be lost.

Another problem is the noise generated by various environmental factors, including fluctuating magnetic and electric fields, particles, radiation, heat, and cosmic rays. The usage of Quantum states makes the Quantum computer considerably more susceptible to making Quantum errors.

Scaling Quantum computers, i.e., adding a significant number of qubits, is also a massive engineering problem, so there is ongoing research in this area.

Quantum systems require developing advanced hardware and software, programming, networking, error correction, and security systems. Similarly, scaling the manufacturing process is a good problem, as developing a production chain before the actual technology is developed is impossible.

Conclusion

Business managers unanimously agree that the quantum age is coming. They realize it’s a perfect time to think about Quantum Technology as a digital investment. Today, there is a need to evangelize and implement extremely rapid computers, intercept-proof communication, and hyper-sensitive measuring methods. A solid understanding of Quantum applications today is crucial for delivery teams to reap the benefits and avoid potentially catastrophic situations arising out of data volumes, data fragmentation, the growing number of variables involved in computing parameters, and the need for more accurate and reliable computing models.