Coronavirus future predictions: Trends to dominate next decade
Future Predictions for a Post-Coronavirus World
After a tedious and a year full of hardships, we have finally heard some news about the Covid-19 vaccine developments. As of now, everyone is looking for new coronavirus future predictions. Unfortunately, it may still take a few months to reach an immunity level for any country and may take further longer for the world to be called “normal” again. Either way, the economic and social impacts of the current pandemic will last longer than we anticipated at first.
The uncertain year of 2020 has taught us the lessons of getting ourselves prepared for uncertainties at all times. Of course, it’s hard to predict any future scenario in a post-coronavirus world. However, economic and societal impacts have begun to transform into new norms already. Based on what has happened so far, we can predict a few inevitable future scenarios in a post-Coronavirus world.
Table of Contents
Coronavirus future predictions – Conservative Travelling and Civil Aviation
Frequent travelers and tourists were the first ones to bear the brunt of Covid 19 restrictions. They will be the last ones to regain normalcy. Much of the travel and tourist industry will take time to regain public confidence. Airlines, in particular, will witness lower leisure travellers and more formal travellers only.
We have already seen top international airlines taking measures with other health and safety measures. Many of these measures, such as wearing a face mask and shield, social distancing requirements, and spacious seating plans, may continue longer. In addition, airport administrations will exceptionally be keener on introducing contactless measures such as online boarding and baggage tags issuing.
Digital Meetings and Gatherings
When it comes to coronavirus future predictions, this will be the most certain one. We have seen a surge in official online meetings and interactions across the globe. Many business sectors, including Education and Consultancy sectors, quickly adapted to the digital sessions and interactions. We had already been witnessing the rising trends of work from home and flexible jobs. The post-coronavirus world also presents a similar scenario where more official business meetings will be held digitally.
Businesses apart, the covid-19 restrictions have made us realize the importance of digital and social networks again. As if the social media networks’ influence wasn’t enough, the new normal will hold digital social gatherings.
Digital meeting will be big thing in this decade. Watch very interesting on how to make digital meeting better with few tweaks.
Telemedicine and Healthcare Sector
The rise of telemedicine services is much of a compulsion for the last year. Hospitals and clinics were left with no choice but to adapt to a digital mode of communication. Many private consultants and hospitals have already begun to introduce virtual consultation services. Many medical services linked with one-on-one consultation will take place digitally regularly now.
Hospitals around the world couldn’t cope with the flooded influx of coronavirus patients. But, unfortunately, that led to a disrupted healthcare scenario for other regular patients too. So even though the number of coronavirus patients has reduced, hospitals will likely see the congested space for a while.
Also, the rising impact of artificial intelligence on drug development and diagnoses has positively impacted the healthcare sector. With faster AI drug development and diagnoses, the rise of telemedicine, virtual consultancy, and remote treatments are likely to become expected trends sooner.
Rising use of Robotics, Unmanned Vehicles, and Drones
The contactless requirements and developing technologies alike have made rising trends for robotics and drones. Leading companies like Amazon have already started experimenting with Drone carriers for home deliveries to their customers. In addition, many service sectors like restaurants and shopping malls have put in place robots to serve the customers. AI-empowered Crewless Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are also a rising trend in both civil and non-civil industries.
Logistics and service sectors alike will take the lead in transforming towards a more robotic service industry in the near future. Primarily affected by Coronavirus restrictions, these trends have started to come into force in many countries already.
VR and E-Sports
It will be unfair to say that virtual reality and e-sports took global shape only last year. However, both virtual reality and e-sports have risen by manifolds, though with much of the restrictions on ground sports. Even most of the leading sports like soccer had introduced the concepts of virtual presence of spectators in the stands.
The younger population is particularly inclined towards VR and e-sports. Thus, the future of digital gaming and e-sports looks heavily thriving.
CNBC Sport & Business experts believe that eSport will reach 1 billion market cap very soon
Cybersecurity and Challenges
In a world with inclining digital trends and much of the economic transitions towards e-commerce, it’s inevitable to face Cybersecurity threats. If there is any challenging outcome from the current and future scenarios, it links with Cybersecurity issues. The financial and banking sector, in particular, will be prone to such challenges. The rapid pace of technological advancement may only mean that the world is not fully prepared for a digital world after all.
The testing times of Covid-19 times are slowly vanishing. The hardships of the social and economic restrictions have been catastrophic globally. The innovative and technological improvements, however, present glimpses of hope for a recovering and better world.
Economic Recession
The world had seen economic recessions at the regional or global level in the past too. The current economic recession caused by the Coronavirus pandemic has multi-faceted impacts. For instance, India had the biggest hit and you can read about it here. Foremost, it subjugated the world to enforce a self-inflicted economic shutdown globally. The threats of the Coronavirus left no alternatives either.
If we can take any positives from the Coronavirus pandemic, it can be associated with the exciting technological transition. Call it a compulsion or evolution, we have seen many technological advancements come into the limelight in the past year. From the use of social apps as a medium of educational learning to the rise of telemedicine. Most of these trends will reshape the new normal of the world post-coronavirus.
Rising E-Commerce Trade Volumes
E-Commerce isn’t a new trade model, neither it became popular after the shop-from-home trends in the last year. The stay at home and quarantine measures across the globe only accelerated the pace of e-commerce trends. We believe that one of the biggest coronavirus future predictions would be e-commerce. Selling online is on it’s way to top the charts of businesses. Ecom brands accepting Crypto payments would reach heights due to big interest from the masses.
Once consumers and businesses become acquaintances through e-commerce platforms, it’s likely to prolong the relations. The global portion of e-commerce in the total trade still accounts for 3% of the total trade volume. That means there is a massive potential for growth in the e-Commerce trade volumes globally.
The interconnectivity and harmonized rise in cheaper technology such as built-in e-commerce websites will ensure global participation. In addition, some rising trends like embedded e-commerce through social media and socializing channels will also play a significant role in the near future. Social apps like Facebook and WhatsApp had already started distinguishing e-commerce services for business users.
Watch very interesting interview with the CNBC Business expert in E-commerce field
Increased Localized trade
It will be too early to predict an end to the globalization of trade that the world witnessed in the past two decades. However, if the current trends are expected, more countries will rely on local manufacturing than global partners.
The recession and economic downturns have also revealed the negative impacts of global trade dependency. In addition, many developing economies had begun to show the signs of a need for localized trade, and the coronavirus pandemic contributed to the notion cripplingly.
Hybrid Business Model
For SMEs in particular, reliance on the brick-and-mortar business model will soon become an obsolete function. The adaption to the digital economic trends such as working from home and digitization of operations will sooner become a competitive advantage.
The rising digital marketing trends with a heavily emphasized portion on social media marketing have also become routine. We will see digital data as the new business advantage for small businesses sooner. It will be no surprise to see more companies adapting to a hybrid style of interaction with more emphasis on online services.
AI and Tech embedded businesses
Artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies had already influenced industries like finance and banking. Many experts in the banking and finance industry called AI the disruptive force. In reality, as more businesses move towards digital data, AI becomes more influential. We saw a surge in the use of telemedicine and remote learning trends globally.
We can predict similar patterns as we saw increasing trends with AI-empowered automated trading and Fintech in finance. Moreover, the catastrophic impacts of Coronavirus globally have already increased the demand for contactless business interactions. As a result, more businesses will adapt to the contactless customer experience with the help of AI embedded technologies.
Remote Working will be a New Normal.
Just as we talk about AI and machine learning impacts on businesses, it also links the remote working style. Global firms like Twitter and TESLA had announced the new work-from-policies might continue permanently. More companies will likely follow suit in the coming months in a post-coronavirus world too.
The rising popularity of the freelancing and digital skill force has also influenced remote working trends. In addition, as we embrace the digitization and automation of business operations, it is likely to boost the remote working style
The Economist asked experts about the new norms - one of the biggest new norm will be Remote Work and it's not a surprise. Watch video for more details.
Cautious Leisure and Hospitality Sector
If any business sector takes longer than usual to regain normalcy, it will be the hospitality and leisure sector. Search engines like Google have already embedded the Covid-19 safety measures in the hotel checking information. Other web platforms and the industry are likely to adopt Covid-19 and other health and safety measures permanently. The sector will reopen with cautious public participation and is expected to regain momentum more slowly than other sectors.
The disinfection and Covid-19 precautions are likely to become a regular demand by visitors globally. The industry itself will embark on the trend to lure in visitors sooner than later.
It is sure to witness a changed world post-coronavirus. We will see new societal norms and behavioural shifts too. Our lives’ business and social aspects will hardly be the same as they were before the coronavirus pandemic.