What is it about?

Quantum software technologies give developers new and powerful tools, but a technology that nobody adopts remains only potential. Interest in bringing quantum computing into software development is growing, yet many barriers still slow its adoption. Most research has focused on technical progress, while the human and organizational factors behind adoption have received little attention. In this study, we statistically analyzed what leads software professionals to adopt quantum software technologies. We built on two established adoption theories (UTAUT2 and Diffusion of Innovation), added perceived trust, collected data with validated questionnaires, and analyzed it with a statistical technique (PLS-SEM).

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Why is it important?

We found that compatibility with current work, personal innovativeness, and performance expectancy drive adoption, while financial concerns work against it. Support at the workplace and regular exposure to the technology were key for actual use, which shows the importance of what organizations do. These results give practical guidance to companies that develop quantum software technologies or want to bring them into their workflows. They also point to new research directions, such as adoption barriers, long-term engagement, and financial aspects.

Perspectives

Quantum software engineering is one of my main research areas, and during my postdoc I worked on it in the QUASAR project. Most work in this field is technical, but in the end a technology matters only if people use it. With this study, I wanted to bring the adoption models I have used for LLMs and fairness toolkits into the quantum domain, to understand what companies can do to support developers who start working with quantum technologies.

Prof. Stefano Lambiase
Aalborg Universitet

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Quantifying adoption: A SEM study of quantum software technology in software development, Empirical Software Engineering, February 2026, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1007/s10664-026-10805-7.
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