2021 may see people using technology to thrive, not just survive

Technology to get smarter in new year

Technology saved humanity in 2020. Many may argue against it, but any semblance of normal life in 2020 was enabled by connected technologies. Much of the connected experience may be dialed back as people resume normal life in a post-vaccine world. Despite the nostalgia of a pre-Covid world, expect technology to remain dominant in almost every aspect of our lives.

The year 2021 is likely to emerge as the one where people adopt technology in every activity possible. Not only in a crisis, as it did in 2020, but willingly and with a better plan. The Covid crisis triggered rapid experimentation with technology. The results and learnings from all such experiments will be visible in 2021. The mindset and approach towards technology have changed forever. The willingness to adopt unimaginable tech solutions will be widespread. The new year will see people using technology to thrive, not just survive.

Broadly, the trends to expect in tech can be divided in these five categories.

Deeper tech

Technology will get smarter in its attempts to understand the consumer’s mind. From internet of things, devices and tech platforms will try to track the behaviour of consumers. The Internet of behaviour will put together information from various sources about a single individual to create a pattern.

Cloud computing will become the operating standard with enterprises and individuals, existing as even more sharply defined files on remote servers. While it will, of course, serve the distributed work ecosystem, it will redefine the concept of office. The need for private cloud services has been rising in India and globally for a few critical reasons. The intensifying need for protecting data and taking ownership of its storage has necessitated the importance of private cloud. Again, in simple terms, private cloud means that a company has control over the server and its location where its data is stored.

“In the post-pandemic world, we will see the emergence of business cloud. Most of on-premise storage of enterprise management will move to cloud. This will provide agility to conceptualise and create new business models rapidly in response to changing market dynamics,” says Krishnan Chatterjee, chief customer officer and head of marketing of Indian subcontinent for SAP.

Automation

Often equated with physical robots, automation will seep deeper into processes. Hundreds of small and large processes will be automated to enhance accuracy, efficiency and transparency. Robotic process automation (RPA) will allow small firms to grow faster with lesser investments in people and infrastructure. Automation as a service will get prominence. Says Rajesh Kumar, regional head of marketing, UiPath India & South Asia, “Software robots, or RPA, level the playing field – it’s the best way to jumpstart their digital transformation.”

According to Gartner, the pandemic and ensuing recession increased interest in RPA for many enterprises. Gartner predicts that “90% of large organisations globally will have adopted RPA in some form by 2022 as they look to digitally empower critical business processes through resilience and scalability, while recalibrating human labor and manual effort”.

Security

The rise of remote computing and cloud will inevitably require more robust security. The next evolution of cybersecurity will be about users rather than organisations. “Cybersecurity mesh essentially allows for the security perimeter to be defined around the identity of a person or thing,” says a Gartner report. Remote device security will be the highest growth category. “Enterprises have been slow to secure mobile devices but will pay more attention to this because they have had to rely on mobile devices during lockdown and new security threats are emerging. We forecast that spend on mobile security will grow at 17 per CAGR (compound annual growth rate) between 2019 and 2025 to reach almost $13 billion,” says research firm Analysys Mason.

Regulation

After the European Union, the US is also going after big tech companies. A suit to break up the monopolies will be an important dimension of new regulatory environment for technology. Issues around accountability and legal liability of technology products and services will dominate regulatory efforts across the world. The need for ethical AI and clear rules for use of blockchain has been felt in industry and government alike. Some efforts have been made but expect multilateral and global coordination to set some standards on use of technology. As digital markets transcend boundaries, countries will have to create common rules of operation.

Connectivity

National economic power in 2021 will rest on the foundations of tech and digital infrastructure. Between the aggressive behaviour of China and the impact of Covid-19, countries, including India, are investing in digital infrastructure with the same approach as boosting their border defences. The roll-out of 5G services will have a cascading effect of connected technologies. Remote healthcare, education and enterprise management will be far smoother. After many false starts, 2021 will be the year of 5G.

About “3.5 billion 5G subscriptions forecast by the end of 2026 -- estimated to account for more than 50 per cent of mobile data traffic at that time”, according to an estimate by Ericsson. Much of this will be triggered in 2021.

India’s promise to bring connectivity to its citizens will be driven through the public Wi-Fi (WANI) project. Public Wi-Fi hotspots are expected to rise from 350,000 to 10 million by the end of 2021.