Singapore Patent Puts Kantar in Super Position

Kantar has been awarded a patent relating to Quantum Machine Learning, after work by its Brand Growth Lab in Singapore. Rather than bringing any immediate impact on its methods, the win helps Kantar stake a claim to be at the bleeding edge of AI in marketing.

The Lab was established in 2018 with the support and partnership of Singapore's Economic Development Board (EDB), and develops advanced analytics solutions for using big data in business decision-making. The patent just announced was granted as long ago as January 2nd by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, for a method of optimising AI and machine learning predictions from a classical data feed with a hybrid simulator generated from classical and quantum model structures.

Quantum computing involves the use of quantum bits or qubits whose ability to exist in more than two states (the straightforward 0 and 1 of a traditional 'bit' plus 'superpositions' of the two) theoretically opens the door to massively faster calculation, rendering tasks feasible which are not realistic with existing methods - cryptography is one field where players such as Google, NASA and IBM hope to see it achieve this 'quantum supremacy'. However despite huge advances in the last three or four years there is still debate as to whether the more error-prone manipulation of qubits will ever be practical, and as Kantar's statements perhaps acknowledge, the patent and the research behind it are more in the way of probing and putting down a marker, than working towards practical application any time soon.

The insight group joins organisations including Oxford University Innovation, D-Wave, IBM and Google in registering Singapore patents for quantum technology, and the Lab's MD Hernan Sanchez comments: 'Quantum technology will revolutionize Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. This patent indicates our commitment to lead in this field'.

Kantar worked in collaboration with Professor Angelakis of the National University of Singapore's Centre of Quantum Technologies during the past six months on two quantum experiments using real consumer behavioral data from its panels: the first trialling customer segmentation using quantum machine learning and 'achieving better results' than a traditional modelling approach; and the second running a customer segmentation based on media consumption patterns using an IBM quantum computer. The latter 'identified four relevant consumer segments' and the parties will now look to demonstrate its superiority or potential superiority over conventional methods, and continue to develop the techniques.

Shilpa Jain (pictured), Principal Data Scientist at the Lab, comments: 'In the field of Data Science, it is always crucial to be aware of the new techniques and methodologies in order to stay relevant and have that competitive edge. By venturing into Quantum field early and experimenting with different Quantum machine learning techniques, we hope to have an early mover advantage that could bring great business value in the long run'.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.