EY and IBM extend strategic alliance into quantum computing

EY and IBM have announced that EY Global Services Limited will join the IBM Quantum Network, further enabling EY teams to explore solutions with IBM that could help resolve some of today’s most complex business challenges. 

As part of the agreement, EY will gain access to IBM’s fleet of quantum computers over the cloud, and will become part of the IBM Quantum Network’s community of organisations working to advance quantum computing.

Quantum computing is a rapidly emerging technology that harnesses the laws of quantum mechanics to solve problems that today’s most powerful supercomputers cannot practically solve. EY teams will leverage their access to the world’s largest fleet of quantum computers to explore solutions to enterprise challenges across finance, oil and gas, healthcare, and government. 

“Quantum, in terms of importance to business, society and the EY organisation, is akin to what AI represented years ago,” Andy Baldwin, EY Global Managing Partner – Client Service, says. “This alliance puts the EY organisation at the forefront of technology. As we invest in this level of quantum computing access, we accelerate our own position and depth of knowledge and capabilities in this space and deepen the rich relationship with our IBM alliance teams.”

Partnership with IBM to build on EY’s Global Quantum Lab

According to EY’s Quantum Readiness Survey 2022, quantum computing is likely to cause disruption sooner than many people think. Nearly all (97%) of executives surveyed in the UK said they expect quantum computing to disrupt their sectors to a high or moderate extent. Nearly half (48%), meanwhile, believe that quantum computing will reach sufficient maturity to play a significant role in the activities of most companies in their respective sectors by 2025. 

The EY organisation established its own Global Quantum Lab last year with a mission to harness quantum value in the domains of trust, transformation and sustainability. Using IBM quantum technology, EY teams plan to conduct leading-class practice research to uncover transformative use cases, including the reduction of CO2 emissions from classical computing, the improvement of safety and accuracy of self-driving cars, and most critically, to integrate quantum benefits into organisations’ mainstream systems for data processing and enterprise decision making.

“As we navigate this period of technology-led change, which is accelerating at unprecedented speed, companies must have a full understanding of how to maximise breakthrough innovations in order to keep pace,” comments Jeff Wong, EY Global Chief Innovation Officer. “Through this collaboration with IBM, the EY organisation will now have the ability to take advantage of quantum computing to propel its innovation journey.”

“IBM’s vision is to deliver useful quantum computing to the world,” adds Jay Gambetta, Vice President IBM Quantum. “We value partners like the EY organisation that can introduce the emerging technology to a wide ecosystem of public and private industry. This will help EY facilitate the exploration of quantum computing’s potential for use cases that matter in its industry.”

Membership in the IBM Quantum Network is part of a broader effort by the EY organisation to invest and develop robust capabilities in emerging technologies, which already include artificial intelligence, blockchain, and metaverse development. Beyond the increased investment of the EY-IBM Alliance, the EY organisation is investing $10 billion in technology initiatives over three years, including investment in the organisation’s own quantum function.