SINGAPORE — Tech giant IBM outlined its strategy to help organizations become AI-first enterprises while advancing practical quantum computing during THINK on Tour Singapore on July 21, company executives told Philippine journalists in separate media roundtable discussions at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Center. The discussions expanded on announcements made during IBM’s annual Asia Pacific flagship conference, where the company unveiled its blueprint for helping organizations adopt artificial intelligence (AI) at scale through trusted AI, hybrid cloud infrastructure and digital sovereignty. The event also featured new AI technologies, enterprise software and strategic collaborations across the region. The first roundtable focused on quantum computing, with IBM Fellow and Chief Technology Officer for IBM Quantum Oliver Dial discussing the industry’s progress toward practical enterprise applications and Southeast Asia’s growing participation in quantum research. Dial said IBM remained on track to demonstrate verified quantum advantage before the end of the year, referring to computing problems in which quantum systems outperform classical computers under conditions that can be independently verified. “We’re still confident we will see verified quantum advantage ... before the end of this year,” Dial said. He said current demonstrations continue to focus on specially designed scientific problems because researchers must be able to verify the correctness of the results independently before they can establish a quantum advantage over conventional computing. Dial also highlighted IBM’s work with the Cleveland Clinic using sample-based quantum diagonalization (SQD), an algorithm developed for molecular simulations. Researchers recently simulated a protein system containing more than 12,000 atoms, producing results that were about 200 times more accurate than previous quantum-centric molecular simulations, although the best classical computing methods continue to outperform quantum systems for such workloads. IBM executives also pointed to Southeast Asia as one of the company’s earliest regions for quantum collaboration. Regional officials said