Remember when everyone was scrambling to stock up on toilet paper & hand sanitizer? Scalping and price gouging got so bad that Amazon suspended more than 3,900 selling accounts in U.S. stores alone for violating the fair pricing policies.
In 2020, we saw a trend where people spent less of their budget on travel, dining, or shopping in person. By April 2020, online retailers noted up to 68% increase in revenue versus 2019.
In 2020, e-commerce accounted for 14.1% of total retail sales. With more shoppers doing the bulk of their shopping online, e-commerce is expected to grow to 22% by 2023.
We owe our thanks to the frontline workers in Healthcare for their tireless sacrifice over the past year.
Based on Bain & Company’s report, US Healthcare Trends 2020: Insights from the Front Line, here are some staggering statistics:
Outside of the traditional healthcare industry, companies will be sharing the responsibilities to safeguard employees and customers too. From screening technology to sanitization stations, quarantine measures for on-site staff to mental health support for remote workers. Tech-driven innovation will improve safety measures and early-warning systems to reduce the likelihood of contagious illnesses being passed around.
How much time do you think you are spending on your devices every day? Across phones, computers, TVs, and smart home devices, we now spend over 12 hours per day interacting with media in one form or another!
Disney is leading the pack in entertainment, with the launch of Disney+ just over a year ago (Nov ‘19), Disney+ is already up to 86 million subscribers. At Disney’s 2020 Investor Day, the company held a 4-hour long presentation of the immense catalog of content scheduled for 2021 and beyond. From a Buzz Lightyear movie (voiced by Captain America, Chris Evans) to Black Widow to Star Wars original, and many more.
Looking beyond video streaming services, 75% of the global music industry revenue is from streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Amazon Music.
A new phrase was coined in 2020: “Zoom fatigue.” It was added to UrbanDictionary in March 2020 — shortly after the first wave of shelter-in-place / shut-down! The popularity of this term is a reflection of the increased use of videoconferencing as companies moved to remote work.
In Zoom’s press release in August, the company shared that second-quarter total revenue of $663.5 million, up 355% year-over-year!
Gartner reports that by 2030, the demand for remote work will increase by 30% due to Generation Z fully entering the workforce.
You’ve probably read this phrase somewhere:
“Covid-19 crisis has dramatically accelerated corporate digital transformation.”
A quick Google search and you will learn about the wide range of industries that ARE investing in AI technology, so this is more of a trend than a specific industry.
Let’s explore some industry use cases:
💰 Banks & Insurance
Research by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) indicates that Banks and insurance companies expect an 86% increase in AI investments by 2025. With the focus on:
“user-friendly AI platforms that allow business employees to quickly build models, easily understand and trust their output, and confidently make decisions will be critical in the deployment of AI at a larger scale.”
Banks can use platforms like DreamQuark to build applications that detect credit fraudsters, or assess customers’ preferences for different products, such as pensions, retirement products, or savings.
🏭 Manufacturing
For decades, companies have been “digitizing” manufacturing plants with distributed and supervisory control systems. Increasingly, AI can help to fully automate complex tasks and provide consistent and precise control, making factory floors safer environments for operators.
A car manufacturer can use platforms like Brainium to integrate AI on machinery, analyze patterns of sensor data (vibration, temperature, condensation etc), and alert operators on predictive maintenance needs.
🚜 Smart Farming / Precision Agriculture
To overcome the challenge of rising food production, agriculture, and farming industries are turning to technology to increase efficiency.
BIS Research reports that the agriculture AI market generated a revenue of $1091.9 million in 2019, with a projected 248% growth to $3807.3 million by 2024.
Farmers can use AI-based applications like Plantix, a crop health diagnostic tool to identify nutrient deficiencies in the soil and recommend fertilizer types to improve harvest quality.