Five Technology-Driven Changes And Trends Accelerated By The Pandemic
Global Head of Product for A.P.Moller-Maersk e-Commerce Logistics - CIO | CDO | Winner of European Digital Leader of the Year 2020 by CIONET
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For many years companies have talked about digitization and business transformation; however, many of those companies weren't effectively pushing to accelerate those transformations. They probably thought they had enough time to deal with the market changes and handle the transformation in a controlled manner.
From my perspective, that has drastically changed in the first three quarters of 2020. When we think of 2020, it is almost like thinking of a fast-forwarding year, where so much has been taken from us and not much has evolved. However, the acceleration seen in so many industries is unbelievable when we compare it to where companies were one year ago. This has uncovered a whole world of new technological possibilities, which will likely keep evolving at a much faster pace.
I strongly believe we will see significant changes in the way we live, work and think as a consequence of this pandemic. Here are the technology-driven changes and trends we'll likely see accelerated by the pandemic:
1. Education
In 2019, it was impossible to think of normal educational systems being based entirely online, but we are now at the point where this is a much bigger reality. Because of this, I expect the mobility and globalization of education to push to a much broader offering of e-learning, including bachelor's, master's and even doctoral degrees. While we're seeing schools and universities going in that direction with some of their programs, this will likely be accelerated by other universities around the world, becoming a global trend. Even more importantly, it might become much more accepted that remote opportunities have similar value to that of face-to-face programs. Even with youth education, it will likely take some of these technologies to facilitate different models of education over the next five to 10 years, with programs more oriented to the student, offering more personalized content and different paces for learning.
2. Working Environment
A year ago, a lot of companies still doubted working-from-home policies and questioned their employees' motivation for that model. But today work from home is a worldwide reality. There is still a quite significant improvement needed to provide the right experience and ways for smaller companies to get there with lower investment, but it is likely we will drive in this direction more and more. Where you live won't have much to do with where you work. I expect companies will divest in real estate and instead invest in remote working technology — and with that extend their ability to reach out to different markets to create a multicultural environment and a more dynamic working culture.
3. Taxes And Public Administration
This next prediction is probably one of the most controversial but, in my opinion, one of the most needed. While the world has changed and companies have tried to keep pace, I believe that taxation in terms of the ability to be mobile irrespective of the country where you work is still quite far from ideal. For example, living in the Netherlands and working a full-time job at a company in the U.S. can become a nightmare from a tribulation perspective. Even within the European Union, this can be quite a journey. The evolution of technology has the potential to drive the evolution of the taxation systems and help facilitate a more globally uniform model that allows for a more flexible working arrangement between regions and countries.
This is obviously a very complex topic, but one that should be examined in the next 10 years so we all can effectively embrace this "digital nomad" profile without having to hire tax advisors to travel with us. The same applies to the fact that more and more public administration services could move fully online, which would allow people to avoid physically having to go to service desks to take care of their affairs.
4. E-Commerce
While companies like Amazon, Shopify and eBay were ahead of the curve, we are now moving to a much more mainstream culture of online shopping and online presence. Large retailers are moving their operations to focus on the online channels, and smaller companies are popping up on a daily basis, leveraging the infrastructure of these big players. These days, few people have doubts about the ability to buy and sell online, and this is the future of brick-and-mortar commerce we still see today. E-commerce is heavily technology-driven, and with technology developments happening in data analytics, hyper-personalization, behavior analysis and predictability, I expect we will see a great increase in e-commerce.
5. The Service Economy
This is not a new trend, but one that will be more and more emphasized. The boom of startups has accelerated this concept, but the "as a service" model will become more deeply embedded within our core behaviors. Businesses will likely move from long-term contracts to the subscription model, with more agile engagement principles. Additionally, these days, the expectation is that we should be able to find anything we need as a service online, and it should be easy to access and easy to use. Economy as a service is pretty much the full-scale digitization of our behavior. This type of change, because it is so fundamental, will also drastically change our workforce, driving more marketplace types of models, where individuals can sell their services. Service quality and ratings will play a critical role for individuals to find profitable businesses.
Looking Ahead
The development of technologies in artificial intelligence, blockchain, data analytics and so on will make this day-to-day digitization something unavoidable but at the same time risky to embrace. It is fundamental that we understand clearly what we need to do to drive forward and innovate.
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