The resurgence of AI has industry leaders counting the days until quantum computers go mainstream. There's been considerable progress on the quantum computing front since I blogged last year about how The European Quantum Industry Consortium (QuIC) was developing its Quantum Strategic Industry Roadmap. For an update, I reached out to Laure Le Bars, research project director at SAP and also president of QuIC. Le Bars was a recent guest on the Future of ERP Podcast from SAP, hosted by Richard Howells, vice president for thought leadership at SAP, and Oyku Ilgar, marketing director for SAP Supply Chain. Advances in quantum hardware, middleware, and software will lead to a general-purpose quantum advantage machine being developed by 2030.

It's easy to understand the allure of the super-processing powers of quantum computing when you consider the explosion of data from AI, machine learning and internet of things (IoT). IDC researchers predicted there will be over 300 billion connected things by 2021. Business models are being disrupted overnight. Workforce diversity and empowered customers are rising, while resources are getting scarce. The ability to manage and monetize large amounts of data is top of mind for leaders whose survival depends on connecting mountains of data experience and operational within and beyond company walls to make better, faster decisions.