Technology continues to drive the world forward, even in the midst of a global pandemic. In fact, the unfortunate circumstances of the previous year have significantly accelerated the shift towards digitalization. In turn, technological evolutions are occurring at a much more rapid pace than expected.
From better smart home technologies to large-scale industrial machines, there’s no argument that technology dominates everyone’s lives. Hence, the technology sector has been among the most successful in terms of weathering the health crisis. New problems require more innovative solutions after all. More importantly, technology is still changing business landscapes, as it has done for years.
Just Business
If you’re an entrepreneur, you’ve probably already noticed the growing need to incorporate tech-oriented infrastructures into your plans and models. As a business leader, you can’t deny the crucial role that technology plays in growing your organization.
Over the past year, the global pandemic has greatly influenced consumer preferences. Convenience and reliability have become some of the most important aspects that businesses need to uphold. This is evidenced by the surge in e-commerce and other online platforms that market products and services.
To thrive in the post-pandemic world, you will have to adapt to these necessary changes that are already taking place. Here are the biggest business tech trends you should definitely consider integrating within the year.
Screen Immersions
Immersive technologies like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) have slowly been gaining traction over the past few years. AR, in particular, will become the biggest game-changer in the near future as more people shelter in place despite the continued vaccine rollouts. Showcasing your products in 2D will no longer cut it in this day and age.
The future of the e-commerce industry, more specifically, will be rooted in AR. Incorporating this technology into your arsenal will definitely help boost sales by elevating the online shopping experiences of your consumers. Fortunately, there are already plenty of technologies and applications that offer augmented reality for retailers.
Not Just Robots
Automation is one of the most important elements that have helped certain businesses stay afloat during the pandemic. Automating the workforce has been proven to significantly increase productivity and efficiency across various operations. While there have been arguments against this trend in light of mass unemployment, automation actually serves to create better job opportunities in the future.
Adopting automation into your business will allow you to re-allocate your workers to more specialized areas as mundane tasks are carried out by machines. Moreover, automation doesn’t necessarily equate to robots. It can also come in the form of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), which can easily be translated to voice assistants and personalized customer experiences.
Next Generation
As the Internet of things (IoT) continues to grow, interconnectivity is becoming more and more essential. Now more than ever, the demand for faster data exchanges across devices is increasing. 4G, or the fourth generation of cellular capability, is starting to get too slow for businesses and consumers alike. Hence, the proliferation of 5G is imminent.
Technologies supported by 5G promise to offer faster speeds than 4G. To put this into scale, 4G networks were developed between 2010 and 2012 offering speeds that were up to 10 times faster than their 3G predecessors. Now, another major advancement in 5G hopes to virtually eliminate delays in data transfer. This is still in development but it’s crucial, especially in a world that’s brimming with smart technologies.
Empathic Tech
For the more internal side of business operations, more sophisticated human resources (HR) technologies are expected to become more prevalent. The drastic shift into remote working setups changed the way business leaders engaged with their employees. You’ve probably been hosting weekly or monthly video meetings to check up on your staff.
Better HR tech systems that are being developed will continue to assist you in keeping better track of your employees and their needs. This time, it won’t just be limited to outdated spreadsheets and video conferencing applications. Adopting centralized systems that allow for two-way communication will be essential for you and your organization, especially as remote working persists after the pandemic.
Business Will Boom
The role of technology in business operations is only becoming more emphasized as time goes on. Coupled with the global pandemic, incorporating better technologies is no longer just a comfort reserved for bigger companies but a necessity for all businesses.
More importantly, you should also be taking a more proactive approach to integrate these technologies into your business. Aside from giving prime importance to health and safety, a part of the post-pandemic world will be extremely tech-oriented. Business technology will definitely be more advanced this year.
