The pandemic has set a new standard for the pace of change. In the past we have euphemized “overnight disruption” to mean a few months to few years for changes to unfold, which seemed fast. We live in a new world where overnight disruption literally means overnight. This represents a radical shift in our mental model of the world, and it is something we are all coping with.
This week I am excited to announce two important research areas that are part of our Future of Technology & Innovation 2020 coverage that are designed to help our clients survive and thrive in this new world. Both feature rapid, responsive research delivery across multiple paid and free channels.
Technology And Innovation During The Pandemic
Information technology has turned our planet into a vastly complex, globally connected ecosystem. Consider for example that International trade is now 60% of global GDP according to the World Bank. This also means that technology and innovation are big weapons we have to fight the pandemic and respond globally, faster than ever before. For example:
- Big data and machine learning can find help discover solutions across the globe. For example, Alphabet’s DeepMind’s protein folding research or Alibaba Cloud’s Epidemic Prediction Solution.
- 3D printing can overcome supply chain problems such as scaling up ventilator production across a globally distributed set of vendors sharing an open source design standard.
- Smartphones and advanced data protection can be used to keep people safe. For example, MIT just released an app that can tell if you have crossed paths with an infected person, while retaining that person’s privacy.
Our aim is to help clients gather critical information on these and other pandemic response innovations, find partnerships, spur ideas for their own efforts, and improve their ability to be ready for the future. We are in a race against time and an unseen enemy; Forrester is here to help.
Emerging Technology And Trends In A Post-pandemic World
Our clients need information on trends and emerging technologies faster, and we have a team that is working on how we meet that need. Unlike in the past where we have published annual reports like The Top Emerging Technology To Watch 2018, we will be publishing trends as streams of content both in front of and behind our paywall. In the Fall we will publish an aggregated, top trends report, but our readers will have seen content on individual trends long before that.
Here are some of the topics we are pursuing, with much more to come.
- Customers are pushing companies to ethically examine their suppliers and partners. This trend is driven in part by unpreceded connectivity and visibility into corporate behaviors. There are many interesting technology developments contributing to this trend, such as blockchain based supply chain track and trace capabilities.
- Automation and AI are creating a self-reliant workforce. AI and automation are having a big impact on how work will get done in the future, but what is the endpoint? We are exploring the idea of a self-reliant workforce in which the very nature of employer and employee is fundamentally different.
- Smart, connected devices are pushing firms to think beyond the smart phone for next generation experiences. We see smart connected devices in homes, work places, and in transportation evolving how business deliver on both employee and customer experiences. Enabling technologies like edge computing and 5G helping drive these changes, but there is also a lot of misinformation and hype to break through.
Do these sound interesting? Have any other big ones you are thinking about? If you have a point of view, an interesting story or questions, let us know here and we’ll pull you into our efforts.