COVID-19 strikes, new technologies emerge. Which ones are here to stay?

These are times we’ve never experienced before. Characterized by an endless sea of questions, volatility, fear, and uncertainty, we are all treading through unchartered waters. While it is a time of great challenge, it is also the perfect playing ground for innovation. From retail outlets moving their operations online, right through to doctors going digital in order to treat patients without actually seeing them, the possibilities are endless in our technological world.

Shopping online…and receiving deliveries via robot

It used to be “nice” whenever we needed it. Now, online shopping is a must-have service that keeps many of us feeling safe in our homes. Not only have online shopping statistics increased tremendously but now many companies have begun to implement pick-ups and drop-offs at designated locations – not directly from and into the hands of people. Taking it a step further, new research, development, and planning is going into robot deliveries.

Payments – digital and contactless

Cash might carry the virus. The plastic on your credit card may be a transmitter too. While digital and contactless payment capabilities are not new, they’re now more prevalent than ever. Companies who didn’t offer them before, must now or risk losing customers. And evolving technologies are making it faster and easier to do.

Working from home

The common dream to work from home has come true for so many. Now that we have it, are we enjoying it or hating it? While the traditionally thought of 9-to-5 office job has been migrating towards more flexible places and schedules for many years, COVID-19 has catapulted that evolution into high gear. And with the change comes a slew of technologies that make it all possible:

·     Virtual meeting tools

·     Work collaboration software

·     Virtual private networks (VPNs)

·     Voice over Internet Protocols (VoIPs)

·     Cloud technology

Online learning

March and April marked interesting and disturbing months in the educational sector, when by the end of April, 191 countries had either announced or implemented school closures. This affected more than 1.57 billion students worldwide! A large number of educational institutions immediately began converting classroom lessons into online lessons to ensure that students could continue learning, even with strict stay-at-home measures in place. Educational institutions have found themselves using virtual meeting software, virtual reality, 3D printing, and even robot teachers powered through artificial intelligence.

Digital healthcare

For countries that acted quickly and implemented digital health technologies to facilitate their pandemic strategy, numbers were fewer and the spread was less. These technologies include data dashboards, migration maps, machine learning, artificial intelligence, digital thermometers, mobile phone apps, thermal cameras, global positioning systems, and wearable technology.

When it comes to the general healthcare needs of the population, telehealth serves to contain the spread while still providing the essential care needed by patients. Doctors conduct phone and video conferences. Chatbots can make diagnoses according to specific symptoms. Images of injuries, rashes, reactions, etc. can be sent digitally for review and diagnosis.

3D printing

As a direct response to supply chain shocks and export bans, 3D printing has been deployed in many areas to offer flexibility in production. A single printer can produce different products and some parts can even be printed onsite to avoid long procurement times and shipping delays.

Self storage – contact free

Every industry has made adjustments, technological investments, and operational implementations to account for “the new way of doing business”: without contact. In the self-storage industry specifically, this looks like rentals that are made through websites, telephone, and kiosks. For existing customers, getting into their rental unit without touching anything will be a critical factor in the months, possibly years to come. Keypads are quickly becoming a thing of the past, with open public research showing that COVID-19 can live on certain surfaces for up to a few days. Self-storage businesses that give their customers a variety of ways to avoid contact and also effectively open, close, and manage their unit, are likely to fare better in current times and those that follow the pandemic.

The successful self-storage operators of today and tomorrow will make the appropriate investments, develop sound plans and implement technologies to support customers’ heightened sense of security and safety that is bound to last for the foreseeable future.

Who is digitally ready?

COVID-19 demonstrated in a lightning-fast timeframe how critical it is for businesses to be digitally ready for technological implementation and evolution. For those who acted quickly and put a clear digitization strategy into action, they survived, and in many cases, even thrived. It’s quickly becoming clear that everything won’t just “go back to normal” someday soon. And so, it will prove essential for companies to form the infrastructure required to operate using the latest technologies so that competitiveness in the space can remain strong.

While many of these changes were clearly coming, what COVID-19 has inevitably done is accelerated their onset, adoption, and acceptance.