Consider a simple case of processing virtual claims of insurance clients. For instance, the client takes a picture of a damaged vehicle and sends it via a mobile app directly to the insurance company. At the beginning of April this year, for example, the American insurance company Allstate recorded more than 90% of all settlement claims by virtual instruments, which was 50% more than the previous two weeks.
When the world finally returns to normal, however it may look, some of the old ways will virtually disappear because they lose their meaning as both customers and businesses get used to more efficient methods. Compared to the traditional approach in the selected example - send a liquidator to assess the damage, submit a report, wait for the information to be checked - digital access saves a considerable amount of time and money and reduces the probability of error.
This example is just one of many possibilities for digital transformation. Experts expect a dramatic shift in general in the following three areas.
Analytics using artificial intelligence
One area showing rapid growth even in an economic downturn is predictive analytics and business intelligence. According to a recent Dresner Advisory Services survey, 49% of large companies are launching new analytics and business intelligence projects or continuing already planned activities. This obviously makes sense: in the case of the COVID-19 crisis, say, traditional econometrics cannot accurately capture the effects on business, which only adds to the uncertainty.
In order to understand the effects of this unprecedented crisis, companies need advanced predictive models and analyses that go beyond conventional econometric measures. To do this, they need to be able to monitor inconsistent data on developments and regulations, consumer health and behaviour, industry and macroeconomics so as to identify key thresholds along the way. Artificial intelligence analysts with the ability to find meaningful links and connections between seemingly discrete data points are tailor-made for this task; this sector will see significant growth in the coming months.
Cloud infrastructure
A new report from the Synergy Research Group states that in the first quarter of 2020, corporate spending on cloud infrastructure services reached $29 billion, which is 37% more than in the same quarter last year. The pandemic made it crystal clear: companies already working in the cloud could move effortlessly to work from home; those who were unprepared first had to deal with clumsy virtual private network connections and remote desktop logs vulnerable to cyber attack.
In the coming months, expect the cloud to be one of the areas of the IT budget that will be immune to the cuts that are affecting almost all other areas of business spending.
Sustainable remote work solutions
Working from home was a big topic in the COVID-19 crisis. While most service companies have made access to work from home available to some employees for years, no one thought relocating the entire global workforce would be possible. But it has worked.
The new potential of the virtual workplace will affect everything from the sale of commercial and residential real estate to cyber security planning and training to product development. With many large companies already announcing they will not reopen main office space or reduce their space requirements after the pandemic, and some governments even considering making work from home a legal right for employees, high expectations are being created that it should be possible to do everything remotely.
Accordingly, it will also be necessary to develop user-friendly cyber security interfaces and protocols that can keep pace with this growing reliance on digital communication.
-bb-