Imagine a post-coronavirus world: the crisis is over, but consumers and business models will no longer be the same. Once people got used to digital and remote, their expectations changed forever. The main themes of 2021 will be digital nomads, philanthropy, and sustainability. People's experiences during the pandemic will lead to rapid changes in Automotive Technology and business.

Do you often catch yourself doing something "before it was mainstream yet"? If so, perhaps you could be a trend hunter - someone who discovers new trends in the world. Trends in technology do not arise spontaneously: thanks to subtle analytics, we can already predict what will be popular in a year, 3, or even 5 years. Of course, the "general unconscious" affects our tastes, but first, it is influenced by bright events, the cultural background, and the work of talented marketers. The former teaches us to wear masks and gloves, while the latter whisper about avocado toast and oversize. Let's figure out who's deciding what and how, and what technology trends will be in business in the coming years.

Pharma Revolution: Advanced Coronavirus Tests

The coronavirus has shaken up the pharmaceutical industry. Drug testing has become faster and easier. Traditional clinical trials are a thing of the past - they've moved to a virtual platform. More new technologies for coronavirus tests and vaccine production await us in 2021. Accordingly, most business companies depend on it.

The pharmaceutical companies Moderna, as well as Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, have pioneered matrix RNA technology in developing a vaccine against COVID-19 that turns the body into a vaccine factory for virus protection and promises to revolutionize both the fight against COVID-19 and future pandemics and even cancer.
Now scientists say this technology, a slow revolution since the discovery of mRNA nearly 60 years ago, could accelerate the development of new vaccines. According to a 2013 study, the traditional method of creating vaccines - injecting a weakened or dead virus or part of it to stimulate the body's immune system - takes, on average, more than a decade. The pandemic flu vaccine took more than eight years to develop, and the hepatitis B vaccine took nearly 18 years.

Hyperautomation

The term "automation" is not new. Recently, however, it has been used more and more often with the prefix "hyper. It means delegating not only routine tasks, but also processes that require decision-making (smart management) to machines. Consulting agencies recognized hyper-automation as one of the top trends last year and the year before. Now its growing popularity is confirmed by Gartner, ABI Research, Deloitte, Economist Intelligence Unit, and in some cases it is already talking about "hyper-automation. Gartner analysts note that companies are increasingly moving toward simultaneous automation of multiple processes and even an entire business ecosystem.

Now about half of employees' time is spent on collecting information, processing data and predictable activities such as moving around the office and communicating with colleagues. Soon, according to the expert, 80% of that time will be "saved" with the help of efficient algorithms, correctly collected data and smarter neural networks.

Big Data

The emphasis will be on working with big data. According to the Deloitte Tech Trends 2021 report, to unlock the potential of "smart" technologies, data must initially be collected for them - having realized this, businesses will rethink "capturing" data and managing it. Therefore, in 2021, businesses will focus on expanding server capacity, building databases and building data centers.

Artificial Intelligence

In past years, there has been a shift from the "black box" concept, where it is impossible to understand why a machine made a particular decision, to "explainable" AI, whose design allows you to trace the logic of the decision and adjust it if necessary. Google even presented its own version of "transparent" AI to guarantee the impartiality and appropriateness of its decisions. However, according to ABI Research experts, we should not expect this approach to be widespread this year - the technology is too immature for mass implementation.

Nevertheless, even with the "inexplicable" AI is working actively - the agency NoGood estimated that in 2020, about 60% of companies have planned its use to increase revenue in the digital space. However, experts warn that in the pursuit of a technological revolution, innovation should not become an end in itself.

IT project roadmaps in recent years have been dotted with promises to add "smartness" to any task, as projects sell better if there is a mention of machine learning or artificial intelligence. In 2021, we can expect an increase in customer awareness - the fashion for adding coveted phrases wherever you can should go down.

Digital Doppelgangers

In the coming years, most companies will create virtual "avatars" of business processes to better visualize them. This will allow for real-time visibility, flexibility to adjust to changing circumstances, and improved productivity. Digital twin of the organization - a kind of pinnacle of digitalization of business, to achieve which will have to master the tools to work with big data, the introduction of algorithms and robotics. According to analysts' forecasts, they will gradually become available not only to large corporations, but also to small businesses.

That’s It!

Mankind has never recorded its existence so thoroughly. Smartwatches measure our heart rate in real-time so that a remote artificial intelligence (AI) evaluates the risks of heart disease. Bluetooth and GPS track how some of us shop at deli stores and linger in front of candy shelves. Information about our likes and social media browsing time is collected to predict our credit risk. Our search queries on shopping platforms are run through natural language word processing systems to create unique targeted ads whose invisible entanglements reshape our tastes and habits. Shaping and collecting data about individuals has become a big part of today's economy. And it has tremendous value. Big data analytics and AI analytics services are being used in productivity-enhancing research and development. They can expand access to financial services. During a pandemic, data on the movement of population across the country informed policymakers in real-time about the impact of the self-imposed exclusion regime. Contact tracking apps sent notifications to people who had been in potentially dangerous proximity to people infected with COVID-19. But it was when data helped us monitor, adapt to, and respond to COVID-19 that the pandemic brought into focus two major issues related to how data gets into the global economy. First, the information economy is opaque and does not always respect privacy. Second, data is stored privately, reducing its value as a public good. A business will definitely uncover even more technological trends in the near future!