The new coronavirus infection COVID-19 not only caused chaos in economies and paralysis of social activity. It also became a catalyst for technological changes that can stay with us for a long time even after the creation of a medicine or vaccine. For example, robotic dogs or doctors. They are only one of the many signs of the new time, which are already visible in various areas of human life. New technologies can be a true glimpse of a new world.
No doubts that the tech industry has been hit by the coronavirus. The suspension of production, disruption in supply chains, and the temporary closure of offline stores of such giants as Apple and Tesla have affected the profits of tech corporations.
Problems in tech caused by pandemic
The largest high-tech industry events have been canceled or moved online. For example, South by Southwest in Austin, Texas; Mobile World Congress in Barcelona or Google I / O in Mountain View, California.
The direct economic damage from the cancellation or postponement of these and other conferences is about $ 1 billion. This number does not include the amount that the organizers would receive from the events.
Facebook has suspended production of the Oculus Quest headset due to supply issues.
Apple has warned that it cannot promptly replace damaged or broken gadgets due to supply disruptions. The company is forced to look for new suppliers of parts after manufacturers in Wuhan shut down due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Xiaomi, Lenovo, Huawei, Asus, and Oppo have also faced production slowdowns due to supply chain disruptions.
Nintendo has announced a delay in the production and delivery of new console models (New Animal Crossing and Ring Fit Adventure).
But there is also a second side of the coin. The usual tech practices were made hard to run, but new trends emerged.
The coronavirus has not only accelerated the digital transformation of enterprises – many had to move almost all processes online – but also forced scientists to find new ways to use high technology for their own purposes. All means are used to fight the coronavirus, including artificial intelligence and big data.
In the two months of the pandemic, “we have gone through two years of global digital transformation,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at a video conference with investors and analysts in early May. For example, one day the company’s service for online meetings Teams, according to him, was simultaneously used by 200 million people.
Current technological advances
The main tech breakthrough was made in the health industry. But there are also a lot of new devices and services designed in the pandemic that will stay in our life for a long time.
Remote medicine
A technology that experts say has really proven to be effective during the coronavirus pandemic is telemedicine. Online consultations and remote monitoring significantly reduced the risks of infection for doctors themselves. This, among other things, helped to reduce the burden on the health care system as a whole.
For example, in Wuhan, a field hospital equipped with 5G equipment from Huawei used infrared thermometers to continuously measure the temperature of patients and alert doctors about their condition, while robots helped nurses care for patients and carry food to them.
Business processes automatisation
Everything related to business automation: office processes, production, logistics, sales, service is worth noting. Business in a very tough regime found out that people are a weak link. In a pandemic they are critically weak – and technologies are not.
Covid emergency showed the business owners that a lot of processes can and should be done automatically. Amazon even had built a completely automated grocery store. It clearly shows us that automatic processes build our future.
This trend can cause a lot of problems lately – the decrease of workplaces is already significant. After the automation trend continues, a lot of non-essential workers can lose their jobs.
Delivery
Actually, not only food or groceries delivery. Pandemic showed us that this trend which developed in the latest years is here to stay. Many big companies want to start using robots instead of people for delivering. Russian tech giant Yandex, for example, already uses a robot who brings food to the nearest office building. Chinese and american companies – e.g. Amazon – are opting for contactless delivery too. Coronavirus made this possible – before pandemic, the creation of delivery robots sounded like something exotic and way too high-tech.
However, distribution companies need to develop specific guidelines to safeguard the sanitary condition of delivered goods before robot delivery services become available worldwide.
Distance learning
No doubts that the academic area was already pretty advanced in technology. Apps and services designed to help the students were popular before COVID. For example, coursework help services like essaywriter.today, or math problems solving apps.
But pandemic showed us that there is no need to postpone the new items that can already be used now. For example, blended teaching mode: ability to follow lessons both in-class and online at the same time. That solves a lot of problems of sick students, plus allows recording lectures for better understanding and revising.
Pandemic also demonstrated that the majority of classroom lessons at high school and colleges can be replaced by occasional Zoom consultations and self-studying. Plus, the huge increase of online courses popularity was possible thanks to free subscription policies by some of the services.
At the same time, pandemic showed the importance of education for the young learners. Kids are struggling without human contact and proper way to study. Technology has yet to develop a way to keep small kids engaged in the virtual classroom.
Online leisure
Though quarantine measures have drastically decreased in-person interactions, the entertainment has been brought online by human imagination.
Around the world, cloud raves and online streaming of concerts have gained momentum. Films have also been published online by movie production companies worldwide. Streaming services gained more popularity than they had ever before. Digital tours are provided by museums and main tourist attractions. Online fitness courses and dancing lessons, yoga practices and singing exercises. After the total quarantine started, there has also been an increase in online gaming traffic.
The development of online activities wouldn’t go anywhere – this industry will continue to grow even further thanks to the technology and covid 19.
