Digital transformation was happening before COVID and has not slowed down since COVID. Businesses want to improve service for customers while also becoming more reactive, competitive, and efficient.

McKinsey’s survey of 889 executives all over the world proves that COVID-19 has accelerated digital transformation in some sectors by several years and the majority of these changes are expected to stay for the long haul.

In this article, we are going to go over some of the tech trends that came about as a result of COVID-19 and how they will continue to be a part of our lives in the future, even after the pandemic is over.

Remote Working and Virtual Reality Training

One of the biggest COVID-19 trends was undoubtedly remote working. The number of people working from home spiked pretty high as lockdowns were enforced and people were to stay in their homes. This allowed many to continue working as regularly as is possible during a pandemic.

After the pandemic, it is likely that remote working will continue to be used. There were cultural and technical obstacles that prevented remote working in the past but thanks to COVID-19 we were able to push through those barriers and create a new normal with these new workplace expectations.

Remote working will majorly affect local economies, general spending, and transportation. According to McKinsey, it is predicted that over 20 percent of the workforce all over the world could be working from home three to five days a week.

Virtual reality has given training a breath of fresh air. Training can now be done in a live virtual environment. This technology has been used in the medical field, engineering field, and so many more industries.

Virtual reality training can deliver an effectively emulated in-person learning opportunity. Virtual reality training is now taking precedence in the corporate and educational world.

Contactless Payments

Not only did COVID-19 change the way we work and train but it also changed how we pay for things at a store. The CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) recommended that during the pandemic we avoid using cash and instead use a contactless payment method.

This method has been around for years but has become increasingly popular during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is now the preferred way to pay and a study showed that 54 percent of shoppers would change retailers to one that provides contactless payment as a method of payment.

This technology is quickly becoming the new normal with contactless and mobile payments being what most consumers prefer to use. It has been predicted that contactless will become the new standard method of payment with more convenient, secure, and faster checking out.

Virtual Tourism

No one could have predicted that COVID-19 would be as bad as it has been with airlines shut down and everyone forced to stay in their own countries and even homes. People are beginning to turn to virtual reality to scratch their itch to travel as it is a safe alternative during a worldwide pandemic.

There are headsets that make virtual reality travelling possible and let people experience realistic access to all kinds of different places including Antarctica or even the pyramids over in Egypt. Virtual reality is even useful for planning a real-life trip.

With virtual reality, you can take tours of resorts, book your flight, choose your airplane seat, and specific hotel rooms all from the comfort of your own home.

Virtual reality could also end up preserving some historic sites that have been damaged due to mass tourism. Virtual reality tourism could lead to a cut back on harmful emissions and make sustainable travel possible.

It certainly will not be able to replace the experience of visiting somewhere in real life, but it can make traveling more accessible and keep things interesting for those who love to travel.

Laser Scanning and 3D Printing

Due to Covid-19, we have experienced a shortage of goods because of disruption in the supply chains and logistics. 3D printing has rapidly become important during this pandemic with companies’ 3D printing personal protective equipment and even ventilators for the healthcare industry.

CONTEXT, the market study firm, stated: “The demands made of printers in all price ranges increased as they were used to create pandemic-related items ranging from PPE to nasopharyngeal swabs.

While this could not fully compensate for lost demand from closed markets (such as consumer products, education, and the dental and automotive industries), it clearly demonstrated the flexibility of the technology, showing how it can be leveraged to help overcome supply-chain disruptions and could, in future, be so used across many industries.”

3D printing holds value across all industries due to its flexibility. It allows for us to no longer rely on disrupted supply chains and helps organizations act faster than other manufacturing technologies in production.

Covid-19 has helped us to innovate technology in many different areas and ways. It has changed the way we pay for things at a store to essential items being manufactured through special 3d printing.