The Covid-19 pandemic has been unprecedented in so many ways. Perhaps never before has a virus caused so much damage throughout the world in such a short time. Yet never before has technology been so helpful to people coping with a global crisis.<\/p>\n
For example, streaming media and the internet delivered up-to-the-minute news \u2014 from health advisories to closings. Microsoft Teams and Slack kept businesses running and employees connected. And Zoom made it easy to host virtual events and teach from anywhere.<\/p>\n
Yes, the pandemic has been the catalyst for tech adoption and will continue to drive innovation in the new normal. As we prepare for 2021, with an eye toward supporting consumers and employees, what technologies should business leaders be watching?<\/p>\n
Here are my tech predictions for 2021.<\/p>\n
Same-day delivery will become table stakes.<\/strong><\/p>\n Prompted by shelter-in-place and quarantine orders, same-day and contactless grocery delivery services have surged in popularity.<\/p>\n Instacart, as an example, was founded back in 2012 and announced nationwide expansions with a number of food store chains in 2018. At the start of the pandemic, however, the online grocery delivery service experienced a\u00a0218% increase<\/a>\u00a0in daily downloads. In March and April, Instacart hired an additional\u00a0300,000 workers<\/a>\u00a0to meet demand. The company also introduced innovative new services, including a same-day delivery offering with Walmart, among other contactless delivery options.<\/p>\n Online retail giant Amazon began to\u00a0follow suit<\/a>\u00a0in 2017 with its Amazon Fresh same-day and next-day delivery service, and in 2020, it announced the first Amazon Fresh\u00a0brick-and-mortar location<\/a>. The stores stand apart from traditional retailers with technologies such as Amazon Dash Cart, designed to let in-store shoppers skip the checkout lane, and new Alexa features for voice-enabled shopping list management and store aisle navigation.<\/p>\n Moving forward, companies have to rethink their delivery service strategies to meet the demands of the \u201cnow economy\u201d consumers. How can your local mom and pop grocery store flourish against this kind of competition? One option some smaller companies are turning to is \u201cmicro-fulfillment centers<\/a>,\u201d or mini warehouses, at the back of smaller grocery stores that use robots to prepare customer orders.<\/p>\n Videoconferencing will deliver \u2018realistic\u2019 experiences.<\/strong><\/p>\n Given the many meetings businesses host on a daily basis, it\u2019s no wonder that videoconferencing has skyrocketed in recent months with the work-from-home directives. For example, by April 2020, Zoom had\u00a0reportedly surpassed<\/a>\u00a0300 million users, while Google Meet had 100 million users, and Microsoft Teams had 75 million. This doesn\u2019t include other services, such as GoToMeeting, BlueJeans and Cisco Webex.<\/p>\n I believe software as a service (SaaS) videoconferencing will see a dramatic shift, incorporating more technologies and filtering options to make the communication platforms deliver \u201cin-person-like\u201d experiences. We\u2019ve already seen Zoom add options like lip color, eyebrow shape, mustaches and beards.<\/p>\n University researchers\u00a0recently announced<\/a>\u00a0that by using artificial intelligence (AI) image-processing algorithms with thousands of face images and collage images from Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams, they were able to identify the same individuals\u2019 participation at different meetings. This was accomplished through facial recognition or by analyzing features in the background. And in April 2020, Google Meet announced the introduction of noise-canceling technology, which uses\u00a0AI to identify and block<\/a>\u00a0ambient sounds that can make voices on a call tough to understand.<\/p>\n As we continue to work virtually in 2021, expect to see more cloud-based platforms hitting the market, with AI, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies to make the virtual experience more realistic. In fact, the global market for videoconferencing, which was $3.85 billion in 2019,\u00a0is expected to grow<\/a>\u00a0at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) rate of 9.9% from 2020 to 2027. Before you invest in a new videoconferencing platform, I recommend looking for more advanced capabilities and security functionalities as well as new products that hit the market.<\/p>\n \u2018Tech for good\u2019 will become the norm.<\/strong><\/p>\n At the beginning of the pandemic, I found that many brands that pivoted to help people tackle the crisis increased their valuations. Technologies such as robotics and automation were needed to meet the supply chain and logistics demands.<\/p>\n For example, when urgent calls went out last spring for personal protective equipment (PPE), more than\u00a0400 Massachusetts-based companies<\/a>\u00a0collaborated with the state to pivot their operations to produce PPE for front-line workers. Dozens of engineers collaborated using SaaS product development technology Onshape (a client of mine) to\u00a0design lifesaving products<\/a>\u00a0within weeks.<\/p>\n As we plan for the rebound, I expect many entrepreneurs to rethink their contribution to the global innovation economy. Instead of pivoting, companies may choose to commit to designing products that will positively impact society and help build a better tomorrow. And, now that engineers have proved they can be agile and develop products fast, I believe we\u2019ll see more innovators leverage modern, cloud-based computer-aided design (CAD) platforms to collaborate and design products in real time, irrespective of their geographic locations.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the bottom line.<\/strong><\/p>\n These predictions are based on what\u2019s possible with emerging technology. Real-world success will hinge on people \u2014 specifically, the leadership provided to individuals and teams. We already know that by only emulating trends, a business can\u2019t make much of a positive impact. In my opinion, it\u2019s a combination of the right ideas, technology and talent that will propel individual companies and the economy forward as we continue to cope with the global crisis.<\/p>\n Forbes Communications Council<\/a>\u00a0is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies.\u00a0Do I qualify?<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Covid-19 pandemic has been unprecedented in so many ways….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brandandbuzzconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3881"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brandandbuzzconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brandandbuzzconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brandandbuzzconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brandandbuzzconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3881"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brandandbuzzconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3883,"href":"https:\/\/www.brandandbuzzconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3881\/revisions\/3883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brandandbuzzconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brandandbuzzconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brandandbuzzconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The 5 Biggest Cloud Computing Trends In 2021<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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