Over the 1.5 years, we have seen unpredictable changes all over the world. This pandemic has speeded the adoption of digital technologies by years & now this change adopted will stay with us for a long haul. As the pandemic started, different industries, from healthcare to education to finance to manufacturing, have forced companies to use technology to restructure every facet of their operations. Everyone today is working, learning, banking, doing exercise, relaxing, and even doing sought of medical care from home online.
In some cases, the technological and digital transformation inspired by Covid-19 has come in the form of an acceleration of existing trends — for example, automation and contactless payments, virtually work from home. In other cases, like VR/AR, digital healthcare, or 3D printing, the crisis has changed the industry’s progression, enabling companies to demonstrate the value that, until now, consumers have been unable or unwilling to see.
In this blog, we’ll explore some of the trends created or accelerated by the onset of Covid-19 that are likely changing few industry environments.
1. Healthcare
This pandemic has pushed all the healthcare services online. Eventually, all the healthcare service providers & patients have adopted the telehealth services very rapidly with the risk of spread of infection. In this pandemic, social distancing has dramatically boosted telehealth adoption. During this time, almost 68% of physicians said they had treated patients virtually, according to a recent survey.
With the time these services are becoming more familiar, telehealth, remote diagnostics, remote mental healthcare, virtual fitness, and IoMT technologies could continue to grow even after the pandemic subsides. Pandemic also boosted testing, tracking & tracing devices and accelerated the adoption of Health monitoring technology.
Investment in telehealth was strong pre-Covid; despite fast patient adoption, the investment become stronger. Turning to telemedicine was one of the safe alternatives to in-person visits as traditional healthcare capacities strained.
Technology today has changed the face of the healthcare industry. Connecting to the doctor virtually, get diagnosis & treatment effectively is the new normal of the healthcare industry. Technologies like IoMT, AI, Big Data Analytics, and many more are proving themselves in being strong hand-holder to the health care industry & health service providers for their ease of work.
2. Workplace
The pandemic came & brought a sudden change in work culture and accelerated digital infrastructure adoption. As a result, employers boosted workplace flexibility and remote work. As social distancing became compulsory, staying home and staying safe become important.
Many companies made the transition from working in offices to performing from home. Video conferencing apps and other online collaboration tools helped employers and employees balance productivity with well-being. Workplace flexibility accelerated the use of different software, which indirectly accelerated the trends in productivity software development.
As a result, all such tech companies experienced overwhelming demand for their services and unprecedented strain on their networks. For example, in a brief period, Microsoft Teams added 12M new users. Spotting an opportunity with growing software, software companies started accommodating the market with their advanced tech software for remote workers during the pandemic.
3. EdTech
Schools and universities have been updating their infrastructure to incorporate digital alternatives into the classroom for years. As per the survey of leading analysts, market valuation for the EdTech industry by 2025 would be $350B before the pandemic. However, the onset of Covid-19 forced away faster expansion. Teachers, administrators, students, and fogeys worldwide scrambled to seek out solutions that might enable learning to continue. As Covid-19 moved classrooms to travel remote overnight, EdTech companies saw an unprecedented surge in users.
Remote learning technology and online courses supported the pandemic time totally without stopping knowledge sharing. But this transition wasn’t completely seamless. Teachers and schools faced many issues, from functionality to tech literacy to insufficient access for students. But technology didn’t keep anyone waiting, from online guidance to online teaching to online assessment; everything slowly & steadily is adopted today by the education sector.
4. Retail
Source: UNCTAD & Netcomm Suisse eCommerece Association
COVID-19: Impact on Retail Consumer
Going & selecting vegetables or groceries was one daily task one human from each household could do. But when the pandemic hit hard with the risk of spreading infection, everything from buying groceries to ordering vegetables went online. As a result, opening the app & selecting the goods has become today the easiest & hassle-free option for every common person.
The pandemic accelerated the unprecedented demand for online grocery services, including many consumers trying online grocery delivery for the primary time. In the process, independent retailers and nationwide chains alike struggled to stay up. Orders that when took hours to satisfy were delayed by weeks in areas hit particularly hard by Covid-19.
Amazon and Walmart and alike larger players with significant spending power invested in emerging technologies, like automated fulfilment. Meanwhile, many smaller businesses were lacking back in investing in self automation apps & turned to other delivery services.
On the other hand of eCommerce, as physical stores have been forced to close AR/VR technology helped customers to try before purchasing. In different industries like furniture, fashion, and beauty, AR & VR technologies have gained traction.
However, as most of the stores were forced to temporarily close during the pandemic, retailers turned to AR/VR to replicate the physical shopping experience at home to help consumers purchase products.
5. Finance
In the finance industry, the transition to digital has been a long-time thing coming way.
Innovation in the financial industry like contactless payments, mobile financial services, and loan and insurance tech have all been growing with time. Regulation will play a big role in how opportunities within the fintech space form during a post-Covid world.
For a long time, even before COVID-19 started, contactless payment options were on the rise. Companies like Apple, Google, and Samsung began adding banking wallets to their mobile products very early. Due to concern around infection of the covid virus with physical contact, contactless payment options are being adopted more likely by every financial institution. Every small shop to big malls started & adopted contactless payment option with the rise of risk of infection.
With the need in the market, handholding the different technologies Finance industry is today running smoothly with advance feature applications. Technology has additionally assisted various associations in developing innovative financial services. The development of better payment systems was a key challenge for organizations. There is also the possibility that robot-advisory will be a significant application in the future. Similarly, blockchain-based services are gaining in popularity in the coming years.
With the rise in COVID-19 & panic situations in different industries, technology has come front to handhold the situation & keep work going. Digital product engineering is the new buzzword within the industry, ready to rework the way businesses operate. Engineering different technical software solutions from various industries & keeping their work going on was one of the benefits technologies have gifted. From AI applications to IoT applications, today all industries in the market are blessed with super apps through digital product engineering.
Digital product engineering has only not blessed technical industries with their super app creation, but regular sectors like food and grocery are usually being run online today. Today every entrepreneur and industry leader is looking to adopt new technology trends to make their business grow. They are always searching for creating innovative offerings that dominate the market. Digital product engineering services can help to enhance the view of any business in the present & future.
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