Insight into computer technology and artificial intelligence (AI)

In 2024, creators of game-changing AI breakthroughs received not just one but two Nobel Prizes. This included the first-ever Nobel Prize for work performed with an AI model: to predict the structure of proteins, the chemical building blocks of life.

Meanwhile, the EU and several states around the world signed the first internationally binding treaty on AI: the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence. The Convention is designed to protect human rights, democracy and the rule of law, at the same time as being conducive to technological progress and innovation.

In the midst of a crucial decade for digital transformation, integrating AI across industry sectors is considered critical to global competitiveness. In a year in which AI-related inventions were constantly in the headlines, it comes as no surprise that the field which includes these inventions – computer technology – rose to become the top technology field for patent applications at the European Patent Office (EPO), with 16 815 filings (+3.3% on 2023).

These filings show that while an innovation gap persists in computer technology as a whole, applicants from EPO states have so far stayed ahead when it comes to AI-related inventions, ever since these started to exceed a few hundred in 2018. European applicants are also gathering impressive momentum in the emerging field of quantum computing. Understandably, both the new economic opportunities presented by AI innovations and the necessity of building on key strengths in the quantum race were highlighted in last year’s major reports on European competitiveness published by Enrico Letta in April and Mario Draghi in September.

US ahead in computer technology, Asia and Europe not far behind

In 2024, the share of all computer technology filings from applicants in EPO states (29.5%) continued to fall short of US applicants (34.4%) and the combined share of Japan, P.R. China and R. Korea (30.8%). Overall growth in filings from EPO states (+5.9%), driven by applicants from Germany (+12.7%), Switzerland (+37.4%) and the UK (+12.4%), was above average but still barely over half of that achieved by US applicants (+11.4%). 

While filings from Asia declined after a particularly strong year of growth in 2023, Samsung and Huawei remained the field’s top applicants by some distance. Leading US tech companies followed, along with the top applicant at the EPO from Germany, Japan and the Netherlands respectively.

The top five applicants alone accounted for more than a fifth (22.6%) of all filings in the field, a slightly smaller share than the previous year (24.3%). This concentration of innovation underlines the importance of the diversity of applicants seen in the European innovation ecosystem.

Machine learning to support diagnosis at the point of care

The Dutch scientist and startup co-founder Rochelle Niemeijer won the EPO’s Young Inventors Prize 2024 for her ​​AI-driven test kit to identify bacterial infections. A case study in leveraging machine learning to make diagnostics more accessible at the point of care, the kit harnesses state-of-the-art medical technology to address the pressing issue of antimicrobial resistance.

For more on women inventors active in a range of technology fields across the EPO member states, check out the dedicated applicant area of this year’s Patent Index.

AI-related inventions drive growth over the past five years, EPO states lead

Though growth in computer technology has trailed off since the double-digit increases seen in 2019 and 2021, it has remained unbroken over the past decade, while many fields have gone up and down. By 2024, only Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy had grown faster (+64.8% on 2015) than computer technology (+63.2% on 2015), with another field that is crucial to the digital era – semiconductors – not far behind in third place (+62.3%). While semiconductors started at a much lower level of filings (reaching 4 292 in 2024), all three growth champions have seen well over double the baseline growth rate for all technology fields (+24.5%) for the decade.

The principal driver of growth in computer technology over the past five years has been inventions for e.g. image recognition, pattern recognition, machine learning and neural networks, with an average annual growth rate in filings of 28% since 2019. Applicants from EPO states maintained a lead throughout this period, while Asian and US filings did not lag far behind. Growth in filings at the EPO from around the world remained strong in 2024, as AI-related inventions increased 10.6% on the previous year. With tens of billions of euros in investment now committed to develop infrastructure globally, ranging from chip manufacturing facilities to new AI factories, inventive activity in Europe’s main innovation hubs offers a promising basis for heightened competitiveness in an increasingly data-driven world economy.

Over half of these AI-related patent filings continue to fall into the area of computing arrangements based on biological models, which includes artificial neural networks. These models enable computers to process data in a way inspired by the structure and function of a biological brain.

As for the other key growth areas within AI-related inventions, image and video recognition has seen an average growth rate of 59% since 2021, helping to push the total annual number of AI-related filings to over 2 000 for the first time in 2023. This area of AI potentially has multiple implications for everyday life, ranging from bringing the prospect of autonomous vehicles forward in time, to making robotic assistants more responsive than ever before.

Interactive robots with AI-driven computer vision

Computer scientist Cordelia Schmid won the 2024 European Inventor Award in the Research category for her computer vision algorithms, which are key to the development of robotic assistants with the potential to recognise their surroundings and respond to spoken commands.

Schmid’s expertise has allowed her to bridge the gap between theoretical research and practical application as the Research Director at Inria, the French national research institute for digital science and technology. She also works part-time at Google. To find out more about the specialist area of assistive robotics for people living with disabilities, check out the EPO's December 2024 patent insight report. 

The top applicants reflect a truly global race to gain the ascendency in AI, spanning multiple sectors, with intense competition between the US and Asia determining the top of the table. Three European and two Japanese applicants complete the top ten.

Could quantum computing be the next big thing?

Artificial intelligence is not the only area credited with the potential to accelerate breakthroughs in multiple fields of innovation. Similar hopes are being invested in quantum computing in a broad range of areas: from drug discovery and materials research, including for the development of improved battery technologies, to secure data transmission based on the principles of quantum communication. 

Applicants from EPO states gained momentum in the patenting of quantum computing solutions in 2024, accounting for half of all filings in the field at the EPO. This mirrors the strong R&D landscape that European players have created. However, commercially available quantum computing systems with practical applications are currently expected to be around a decade or more away. It therefore remains to be seen whether the levels of growth in AI-related inventions during the previous decade will be achieved in quantum computing in the years to come.

Certainly the future of the field is being monitored closely at the EPO, including in several patent insight reports. Furthermore, with US tech giants having unveiled their first-ever quantum processors in recent months, the EU has pledged to maintain a leading position in the field by launching a Quantum Strategy during the course of this year, along with a Quantum Act that builds on the existing EU Chips Act. These measures are designed to support investment in pan-European quantum computing, communication and sensing infrastructure. The top applicant ranking here reveals a diverse set of European applicants that are beginning to develop patent portfolios in the field. Alphabet and Microsoft are the only top applicants in to feature in both AI and quantum computing rankings.

Towards a more sustainable world

As the ecosystems of innovation and of the natural world become increasingly intertwined, there remains scope for greater harmonisation between the two. AI is now being used to meet a variety of human needs, ranging from smart health solutions to power distribution and the integration of AI systems into smart grids, an area that has seen major growth in recent years. It is also being used in technological solutions for natural ecosystems.

Such solutions include combinations of remote sensing and real-time data-processing technologies, AI and drones that could transform how forests are managed by scanning thousands of hectares in a matter of hours, and monitoring threats ranging from pest outbreaks to the risk of wildfires. The data collected can also be used to support climate action, including by verifying forests’ capacity as carbon sinks.

Meanwhile, as advanced robots explore landscapes ranging from Earth’s ocean-beds to the surface of Mars, AI-powered robotic surgery systems are enhancing human health by supporting surgeons in performing life-saving procedures with extreme precision. As technology continues to make possible what may formerly have seemed unimaginable, the patent system remains a key pillar for sharing new technical knowledge, attracting investment and creating solutions.