Now that the COVID-19 pandemic is recognized as a historical fact, it has occurred to many people that the global event has greatly sped up the process of transferring to digital. The crisis that no one could have prevented resulted in tremendous changes in how businesses work, how people communicate, and how educational institutions teach students. The aftermath of this global crisis will continue to affect the future of work, technology applications, and customer relationships in the years to come. Therefore, this blog post will focus on how the pandemic facilitated the process of transferring to digital. The evolution of this trend and insights from previous case studies will also be included in the discussion.
Surge of Digital Transformation
The context under consideration has forced businesses globally to take immediate steps and adapt to the new reality. As a consequence of the pandemic outbreak, work from home and remote communication became urgent needs. According to McKinsey, companies that had had doubts about digital tools began to implement these technologies with unprecedented pace. The predictions are that by 2025, at least 70% of companies’ transformations will have sped up by five years. E-commerce has emerged as one of the winners in this context since the orders placed via the Internet and mobile applications surged by 44% in 2020 and will amount to $6.4 trillion worldwide by 2024. Businesses have also increased their effort to develop digitalization strategies to meet the needs of customers turning to online services.
Work from Home and Telework Data
An issue that interests me is how COVID-19 has altered the course of technological advancements and the extent of its impact on further development. For one, the transition to digital has also altered the conception of work. While the remote workplace was initially a makeshift solution, it has now been firmly established in the world of work. According to Gartner, up to 48% of employees will work remotely at least part of the time post-pandemic. I predict that this will usher in the growth of advanced telecommuting technologies and tools that bring about effective collaboration and productivity.
Adapting Business Operations to a Digital World
Furthermore, the pandemic served as a catalyst for changes in business operations and allowed companies to reconsider simple industrial models. Firms are now investing more in digital tools and solutions for virtual communication, and workers are finding it easier to cooperate with each other regardless of their on-premises status. To be specific, by 2025, the global expenditure on digital workplace technologies is poised to hit $500 billion.
Key Areas of Digital Proliferation
- E-commerce: The expansion of this niche will continue, and online sales will make up 22.0% of all global retail sales in 2024, whereas this number was only 14.0% in 2019.
- Education technology: The growth of online ‘schools’ is expected to be one of the most remarkable, and the worldwide e-learning market is projected to hit $375.0 billion by 2026.
- Healthcare digitalization: During the pandemic, the demand for telehealth services has been unprecedented as the number of telehealth visits increased by 154.0% in March 2020 compared to the same period a year earlier. In the coming years, the global telehealth market will exceed $175 billion.
- Customer engagement: The field of customer data and analysis is expected to receive more attention from brands, as 86.0% of buyers are prepared to pay more for a specific consumer experience. Therefore, companies excelling at customer engagement are projected to increase their revenue by up to 30.0% by 2025.
- Business innovation: In light of the COVID-19 shifts, almost 50% of executives expect their companies to invest more in rapid prototyping and digital business models.
- Technology in business: It is estimated that by 2025 AI will contribute up to $15.7 trillion to the global economy. In addition, the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning is claimed to be fundamental to ensuring business innovation.
- Remote learning: Surging demand for remote learning solutions globally is expected. In June 2020, 1.5 billion students worldwide were engaged in online education, a ratio that is expected to remain steady. The growth rate of the online education sector is estimated at 20% over the next five years.
Virtual Communication: The Future of Communication
Virtual communication is now an essential feature of life and business. Video conferencing has never been more popular with the advent of COVID-19, with the leading software players being Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Video conferencing has allowed businesses to communicate across the globe with relative ease. With obviously virtual work and communication being effective to date, it is expected that the video conferencing market will reach $9.2 billion by 2027, having a compound annual growth rate of 19.9%.
Another implication of the adoption of virtual communication in business is related to customer interaction. Businesses are resorting to digital channels to reach customers and enhance their customer personalization capabilities. It is expected that, by 2025, 60% of field sales reps will be relying on digital sales engagement and virtual communications to interact with their customers. Highlighting the relevance of virtual customer connections for the upcoming future, the businesses should adapt their ways of communicating in order to meet the customers’ increasingly virtual behaviors.
Future Projections of the Digital World
Looking beyond the current COVID-19 context, the following trends are assumed to influence the future development of digital:
- Cybersecurity Will Receive More Attention: The COVID-19 outbreak has accelerated the process of remote work and online services, leading to an expected $300 billion investment in cybersecurity by 2024. It means that organizations will take more actions to protect their sensitive data.
- Cloud Computing Will Keep Expanding: The market size of cloud computing is expected to grow at a rate of 16.3%, reaching $832.1 billion by 2025. They seek to implement more remote operations and make them more flexible.
- Healthcare Will Continue Transforming: The market value of digital health technologies is projected to reach $507 billion by 2027. The increasing use of telemedicine and mobile health apps highlights the ongoing digitalization of this sector.
- New Work Models Will Be Established: Companies will continue playing with hybrid work models. By 2023, 50% of employees are expected to work in a hybrid model. The new mode of work will impact organizational culture and workers’ engagement.
COVID-19 has already altered the course of history, accelerating the move to the digital and changing the way we work, live, and interact. As companies keep adjusting to the new environment, the world of work, technology use, and customer interactions will not be the same. A lesson of the pandemic is that businesses should make profound digital changes that will help them survive and adapt to every possible future crisis, fostering more innovation and resilience.
