IBM is focusing on quantum computing to win over medium-sized businesses
By 2023, quantum computing had reached a level where it could match the capabilities of traditional computers; this year IBM is expected to achieve ‘quantum advantage’, with significantly superior performance and quality, with the aim of eliminating errors and background noise within a couple of years so that efficient quantum-based machines can be put into production by 2029. This is the roadmap for Big Blue.
But “the real dream is to bring this technology to Italia after Germany and the Netherlands, so that we can establish a high-quality research centre in partnership with businesses”. This is the hope of Nico Losito, who took up his post as the new general manager of IBM Italia in April: a site has already been allocated in Salerno, with the aim of creating a quantum hub, but the project is being held back by “a lack of institutional awareness, which does not help to untangle the bureaucratic knots, and by a lack of knowledge that all too often leads to quantum computing being confused with HPC, or high-performance computing”.
The race to embrace this cutting-edge technology is already underway, not least because it is certain that quantum computing will make it possible to breach current cryptographic algorithms, thereby removing security barriers that are currently unassailable but are already being challenged by next-generation tools such as Mythos’s artificial intelligence, which promises to identify vulnerabilities in current systems at lightning speed so that they can be exploited. ““In Italia, there is now a strong awareness of this issue and, together with the leading national banks and insurance companies, we are already collaborating with IBM’s research team in Zurich – which, incidentally, is led by an Italian – to develop quantum-safe technology that safeguards the defences of a particularly sensitive sector such as financial services,” continues Losito.
IBM is already active in two cutting-edge technology areas – artificial intelligence and hybrid cloud – in the enterprise market, but its stated aim is to expand its reach to the mid-market by providing simple and efficient solutions. Agility, speed and effectiveness are precisely the three imperatives for becoming an ‘AI-first company’. With this in mind, IBM has long adopted an experimental approach, acting as the ‘zero customer’ for its own strategies. In this context, at a global level, it has achieved productivity gains estimated at $4.5 billion over a three-year period through the adoption of artificial intelligence, demonstrating the effectiveness of the solutions implemented.
On the other hand, there is also a gap between the perceived benefits of AI and its actual effects: today, more than two-thirds of global CEOs are convinced that the technology will have a decisive impact on business, but only 10 per cent are directing solutions towards increasing revenue. Looking ahead to 2030, eight out of ten CEOs recognise that it could make a decisive contribution to their companies’ revenue growth, but only a quarter are aware of the ways in which, and the areas where, it could have an impact.
