Many countries surfaced from the impact of lockdown, and executives experienced dramatic shifts in business operations. To overcome this loss and get back to the new normal of the pandemic, business leaders are discovering operational changes essential for business continuity. The pandemic has proved the value of digital operating models and is likely to speed up digital transformation and innovation soon.
Digital Transformation Trends in the Post-COVID-19 World
Digital transformation in companies is likely to be one of the most strategic decisions. As businesses struggle to adjust to the new normal, here are the foreseen digital transformation trends that are likely to continue in the coming years.
1) Enhanced Use of Analytics
Big data and analytics have always been on a steady growth trajectory. And the COVID-19 outbreak emerged an even greater need for data. Institutions and companies such as SAS and Johns Hopkins created COVID-19 health dashboards that complied with data from a myriad of sources helping businesses and governments make decisions to protect employees, citizens, and other stakeholders.
Organizations were using data to make smarter business decisions, but last year saw an even greater need for data analytics to make real-time critical business and life-saving decisions. In the wake of the global pandemic, companies anticipate investing more in data and analytics.
As businesses are getting back to the new normal, data and analytics have increased for contact tracing and making smarter decisions in the workplace. Several big tech companies, including Oracle, HPE, Microsoft, Cisco, and Salesforce, are developing data-driven tools to help employees get back to work safely.
2) 5G Development Getting Faster
Even before the pandemic, everyone wanted faster connectivity at home and in the workplace. But the coronavirus intensified this demand as people started working from their homes. Many organizations observed the need for faster connectivity to keep everyone connected. To our advantage, 5G deployment is forging ahead despite the pandemic. Many telcos are planning to deliver or exceed their 5G implementation goals. Verizon launched a virtual lab in May to test 5G deployments and rolled out 5G coverage across San Diego, CA.
3) AI and Machine Learning-Powered Businesses in the Pandemic
The continued growth of data drives the need for technology to analyze it. As businesses turned to technology to gain insights into their data, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) exploded in recent times. Organizations need data to be captured, managed, enriched and envisioned in rapid succession. This exactly reinforces the need for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
Cloud providers such as IBM, Google, AWS, and Microsoft are investing in offering acceleration in the cloud. Chipmakers such as Intel and NVIDIA are building GPUs and CPUs that can boost learning and training from data and drive targeted recommendations and accurate conversational AI. As the coronavirus continues to spread, we can expect to see continued growth in the development of AI and MI-powered tools in companies.
4) Blockchain as a Necessity
The Department of Homeland Security named Blockchain as an essential technology in April to fight COVID-19 and repair the broken economy. The virus impacted supply chains across the globe. If deployed correctly, Blockchain has the potential to fix damaged supply chains by verifying and processing transactions quickly. Being an immutable ledger, Blockchain can accurately track the movement of goods in a supply chain. Several U.S.-based tech firms and food producers have used Blockchain for product authenticity, ease of recall, and inventory management.
IBM Food Trust is an excellent example for using Blockchain in supply chains, whose members use distributed ledger technology (DLT) to track food products’ movement from farm to market. The U.S. organizations using IBM Food Trust includes Drakes, Raw Seafoods, Albertsons, Walmart, National Fisheries Institute, and others. This could be the perfect catalyst for setting Blockchain a fundamental technology moving forward.
5) Growing Robotic Process Automation (RPA)/Intelligent Process Automation (IPA)
RPA and its smarter relative IPA (Intelligent Process Automation) is the one thing that can help companies move forward when employees are physically unable to work from the office. Even in the post-corona world, companies are more likely to prefer using it for smooth operations. Many big companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, Pega, UiPath, and Automation Anywhere, are investing in software-driven automation to meet the cloud and accelerate with the help of AI. According to a report, a compound annual growth rate is approximately 30 percent for RPA in the forecast period through 2026.
6)Expansion of Connected Vehicles, Drones, and Other Technologies
Because of the pandemic, we are witnessing an expansion in how governments collect data for contact tracing. In different countries, apps having APIs from Apple and Google used with great success. Other smart city practices are more likely to adopt this technology post-pandemic.
Car companies are still making headlines and moving the technology ahead for connected cars, which might not be a priority during the pandemic. Mercedes and NVIDIA announced a strategic partnership that foresees NVIDIA computers in cars by 2014. Despite the pandemic, Tesla extensively sold its wild new truck design. Moving forward, tech innovations and moves solidify a significant impact on the industry.
Conclusion
With business functions and practices disrupted almost overnight, businesses have found themselves capable of defeating new constraints. Business leaders have started to rethink and take bold paths for better business continuity. But data offers intelligence-driven decision-making that leads to more sustainable control and improved governance. Thus, companies are leveraging their technologies to succeed in any environment. And COVID-19 has driven this change in business operations, which will continue in the post-pandemic world.
Pooja Patil is a versatile Content Writer with proven writing capabilities in all genres. She holds more than 2 years of experience in the content marketing field, working closely with B2B, B2C, and entertainment businesses providing unparalleled content with enhanced search engine visibility. Content writing expert by day and technophile by night, Pooja enchants her readers with insightful information displayed artistically.
