A close look at the new technologies and solutions that will be critical in the post-coronavirus world

Humanity has faced many previous global epidemics and crises, whether it was a man-made occurrence or an evolution of the natural changes in the universe.

The impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) will also pass, and in the near future, we and our kids will talk about a world BC (Before Coronavirus) and AC (After Coronavirus).

The impact of corona is no less than World War II, where some nations will be defeated, some will collapse, and yet others will rise and grow. We can see new economic and political forces popping up.

The challenges of the coronavirus pandemic will be solved through technological leaps. For the first time in decades, the world has to cooperate against one enemy; where everyone is scrambling; where we are forced to reduce the creation of vaccines from 10-year cycle to 18 months; where we need to create new technologies for early detection for corona, where post-illness virtual care is becoming the norm; and where we need to limit the coronavirus spread through track and trace apps.  In the current analysis, we will look into the post-coronavirus (COVID-19) period.

1: What are the new technology tools and solutions that coronavirus will prompt us to create and adopt widely?

2: What new systems will coronavirus empower — whether it is health or social care, prevention, new ways of working, military and political systems?

Not all technologies will surge ahead. Post-coronavirus world will also have a major impact on the retreat or the delay of some promising new technologies, such as 5G networks.

Most of the technologies are not new. They have existed before. The challenge has always been mass, global adoption of these technologies. The question is how to repurpose technologies, organisations and systems that serve to combat epidemics. The post-coronavirus world will primarily enhance human service technology and solutions that support healthcare and social needs, away from the excessive luxury that started before the coronavirus world. Accordingly, the Atlantic Council’s GeoTech Center submitted a questionnaire to more than 100 technology experts to record their expectations about the impact of COVID-19 on innovation in five key fields: the future of work, data and AI, trust and supply chains, space commercialization, and health and medicine. The study has got some key findings.

Most respondents believe that the coronavirus pandemic will accelerate innovation significantly in four of the five fields, while having little impact on space tech innovation. Respondents also believe that developed countries will be at the forefront of this innovation, while in the Middle East, Latin and South America, and Africa, innovation will be mostly unaffected or slightly hampered. Russia, an outlier, is expected to benefit only slightly.

In the last two months I have prepared a forecasting study in cooperation with an Artificial Intelligence Journalism for Research and Forecasting company. It focused on five areas that will make major changes in the post-coronavirus period.

First topic is about the new solutions and technologies in healthcare, where corona pandemic will push more investments in these technologies.

Second topic is about the Artificial Intelligence Journalism and Media Technology. And how the world relied on several new tools for transferring content, strongly promoting the era of Artificial Intelligence Journalism and the use of new media technologies more widely. The world will now depend more on them, and it will witness great investments in the post-coronavirus world.

The study showed new solutions in remote work, study and learning in the third topic. As millions of people are relying on technology to help them work and study remotely, the number of people is working from home is increasing. Here the new technologies and communication tools have proved pivotal to companies’ and governments’ success

The study focused on the new solutions in politics and international relations in the fourth topic, and how technological changes could negatively affect relations between countries. Also, how technological progress can change nations to lead the world in the post-coronavirus future.

The fifth topic showed how relations between giant tech companies will change in the post-coronavirus future. Before the coronavirus pandemic, competition had increased between technology giants, aimed at controlling a share of the international technology market, by providing the best services, tools and solutions.