Businesses That Will Remain In Demand After Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced businesses to evaluate their in-person meeting needs, with many types of meetings remaining virtual going forward. Companies can save time and travel costs by holding meetings virtually, and this strategy is more cost-effective for employees, too.

Increased automation, the adoption of artificial intelligence, and the rise of other contactless activities are all decreasing the number of humans needed for work. As a result, Daniel Zhao says, more employees are aware that telecommuting is an option, and they now have the experience of showing that they can be productive working from home. Companies are sending employees home and eliminating work trips, and many are now planning to keep with some hybrid forms of remote work and virtual meetings.

Companies Accelerated Adoption of Digital, Automation, and Other Technologies To address the limitations of physical proximity, the dramatic increase in demand, and other sudden changes required by COVID-19, companies have increased the use of digital tools, automation, and artificial intelligence. The mandates increased businesses' use of technologies to enhance their services from remote locations, condensing years' worth of digital adoption to just months. The COVID-19 pandemic, and subsequent rise in the use of online retail channels, made many businesses more vulnerable to cyber security risks, with virtual platforms being rapidly adopted or expanded at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Adobe Digital Economy Index measures transactions from 80 of the 100 largest U.S.-based online retailers. Consumers began purchasing many basic items online as the pandemic began, with purchases for groceries, clothing, and electronics continuing to rise online every month.

The Adobe Digital Economy Index measures transactions at 80 of the top 100 online retailers in the U.S. Consumers started buying many essential items online when the pandemic began, and online purchases of groceries, apparel and electronics continue to increase each month. According to data from the Department of Commerce and US Census Bureau, consumers spent $792 billion online in 2020, up from $598 billion in 2019, a 32.4% increase.16 While some of that high demand for online purchases could fade as the pandemic winds down, the expectation is that internet purchases will continue to increase faster than traditional retail in the coming decade. The shift will persist in developed economies once COVID-19 fades, though maybe not as strong as it did during the crisis. More than three-quarters of CEOs expect that changing customer behaviors, shifting away from in-person interactions toward greater shopping and online customer service interactions, will continue post-COVID-19. In the post-COVID-19 era, more will be required to innovate and get out from behind the comfort of doing business as usual.

Technology will continue to propel innovation in various business models in different industries, enabling new companies to come into the market and seriously disrupt the incumbents. Nearly every industry, including airlines, retail, hospitality, health care, education, construction, and technology, will need to rapidly transform nearly every business model across industries to stay viable. Accelerating the digital transformation journey would be the priority of many companies to guarantee business continuity, increase performance, and roll out new business models to stay competitive.

Governments could support continued startup growth by expanding digital architectures so that everyone has access to affordable broadband connections, and by making permanent certain interim regulatory changes that allowed new businesses to thrive during COVID-19, like telemedicine. Many schools will continue to offer online learning in some form following the COVID-19 pandemic, and businesses providing tools for learning from home will reap benefits. As distributed labor and education become more and more part of normal life post-pandemic, safety concerns about these applications are likely to remain.

The rise of remote and hybrid work arrangements increased usage of telehealth services, and continued growth of electronic commerce--trends accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic that is expected to continue after the pandemic--will heighten demand for improved cybersecurity measures and create further demand for computing-related occupations. Even before the pandemic, organizations were increasingly using unconventional tools for employee tracking, but this HR trend will accelerate with the new tracking of telecommuters and the collection of data on employee health and safety. The pandemic has intensified a trend toward employers playing a larger role in the financial, physical, and psychological well-being of their employees.

Companies will place more emphasis on employees' mental health and well-being to avoid the drawbacks of reduced face-to-face human interaction. As a result, companies will shift their models of corporate governance and governance, placing greater emphasis on the corporate social responsibility and well-being of individuals. Gartner's analysis indicates that organizations will continue expanding the use of contingent workers to retain greater workforce flexibility in the wake of COVID-19, and they will consider adopting other labor models that they saw in place during the pandemic, such as talent sharing and 80% compensation for 80% work.

The post-COVID world In industries ranging from health care to education to finance and manufacturing, the pandemic has forced companies to rethink almost every aspect of their operations using technology. There is no denying the way companies are doing business has changed -- and those changes are going to last well into the future, if not permanently. While stories are tragically continuing to emerge of some businesses furloughing employees or closing entirely, the COVID-19 pandemic has not been all gloom and doom for every kind of company. Anxiety and depression have been on the rise in the months since the pandemic began, and behavioral health and mental health providers are being sought out to treat these co-occurring outbreaks.

As more people adopt regular practices of attending to their mental health during the pandemic, telehealth services will likely experience continued demand once the pandemic has subsided. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increase in the number of remote and mixed working arrangements in workplaces, an explosion in the use of electronic commerce, and an enormous expansion in the accessibility of telehealth and telemedicine services. Telehealth visits have increased up to 50% nationally during the entire pandemic. AmTrust is here to help our small businesses that are covered during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Individuals are looking to support their local restaurants during the COVID-19 pandemic, and meal delivery services are meeting that demand. During COVID-19, many larger companies have developed strategies to support their smaller- to medium-sized suppliers.