"We can deliver business value today using classical computing, while unlocking greater value as quantum hardware matures."

Ville Kotovirta, CTO at QMill

After announcing that ESL Shipping and QMill are exploring quantum computing for complex shipping decisions for ESL Shipping’s Smart Fleet Optimization project, Ville Kotovirta, CTO at QMill, provided this exclusive comment:

We are exploring how ship routing algorithms could be implemented using quantum computing, how these methods would scale on future quantum computers, and when quantum computing might be able to solve problems that are large enough to matter from a business perspective. To examine how these solutions would scale to realistically sized problems, we run simulations on smaller instances, and we use real quantum computers to study scalability further and better understand noise models. According to manufacturers’ roadmaps, the capacity of quantum computers is expected to improve again significantly over the course of this two-year project, even if quantum advantage is not quite yet within reach for solving problems of this level of complexity.

ESL Shipping’s use case is a particularly compelling optimization challenge. By integrating QMill’s quantum-classical hybrid optimization algorithms with ESL Shipping’s operational data we can deliver business value today using classical computing, while unlocking greater value as quantum hardware matures. This hybrid approach, which bridges classical and quantum computing, is pioneering within the field.

Editor’s note: Dr. Hannu Kauppinen, CEO & Co-Founder of QMill, will be speaking at IQT Nordics: Quantum Technology in a Changing World, which is coming to Oslo on June 22-24, 2026.