Over to 2021: Tech Trend Predictions for the New Year from Industry Experts

So, here we are in 2021. A new year always brings hope for the better. What can we expect from the Indian ecosystem? How will the events of 2020 direct the coming year? Let´s look at some expert predictions from the players in the ecosystem.

The year of 2020 has proven to be a boon for the IT and tech sector. With the entire world restricted to their homes for close to 70+ days, industries and businesses rushed to adopt technology, their target being to be fully equipped for smoothly conducted businesses.

Covid or no Covid, the Indian IT ecosystem is developing rapidly, with startups rising and dominating a fair market share. India’s growth projection has scaled from 29K startups in 2014 to 55K by the end of 2020. Events like the ban on Chinese applications further created a void to be filled by Indian counterparts.

Contactless everything will see increased focus, right from manufacturing to sales and delivery

“In many ways 2020 was almost like a ‘reset’ of whatever was considered table stakes,” says Srividya Kannan, Founder, Director – Avaali Solutions Pvt Ltd.

“This unique leap year took center stage for maximum use of the words ‘unprecedented’, ‘uncertain’ and ‘unpredictable’. The Oxford Dictionary expanded its word of the year to encompass ´Several words of an unprecedented year´, since it was too hard to isolate a single word. These include coronavirus, mute, unmute, quarantine, remote, lockdown, self-isolate, face-mask etc.,” she says.

She adds that with most people now acclimatized with ‘virtual’, 2021 will see a shift towards more permanent digital stakeholder engagement and experiences.

“Contactless everything will see increased focus, right from manufacturing to sales and delivery. Customer engagement in most industries, from banking, healthcare, retail to education, will focus on deeper digital experiences, including augmented technologies from AR and VR,” she says.

Read more: Tech Predictions 2021: ´Automation will be inevitable in 2021´

She also predicts that AI will get more pervasive, encompassing the huge data ecosystem as well as unstructured content to drive insights and predictions in addition to automation.

“Enterprises will focus on building new capabilities via digital, including faster time to market, customer outreach, as well as building new customer segments. This will necessitate building stronger digital trust to protect internal as well as external stakeholder privacy, data security, transparency, and stronger focus on social responsibility. Good talent supply will be a huge area of focus as well as concern for everyone,” she adds.

Rajat Singhania, the Founder of SocioRAC, also predicts significant increase in the use of tech for areas like banking/digital payments, where he says, “lots done but even more is to be done.”

It’s the year of the consumer and consumer experience, it will be a big win for them

“2021 promises to be an interesting year for technology. The pandemic has created a new normal, reinforced the value of tech, even for businesses staying away from tech till now,” he says.

“People adopted tech overnight to get life and business moving and enable some activity whether it was basics like Zoom and Netflix for survival or stuff like hardware, CRMs, and team management solutions,” he adds.

Another year also means more data to manage, which is why, he sees changes coming in information management as well.

“People and businesses are getting overwhelmed with too much data and this gets severely amplified with remote working. Too much data becomes counter-productive, eating up precious time, creating pressure, and triggering decisions based on incomplete information. I see a lot of activity in this space,” he predicts.

He also foresees enhanced options for remote monitoring, management, treatment, and solutions for data interoperability in the healthcare sector.

“In the end, it’s the year of the consumer and consumer experience, it will be a big win for them,” he says.

Sudhir Kothari, Founder and CEO, Embee Software, sums up what is on everyone´s mind; that the pandemic has transformed and accelerated the pace of innovation in technology like never before.

If you are a business who has never considered working remotely or investing in Cloud technologies, then chances are high that you have decided to invest in them now

“The crisis has forced businesses to completely change the way they work not by choice, but by necessity. If you are a business who has never considered working remotely or investing in Cloud technologies, then chances are high that you have decided to invest in them now,” he says.

Whatever happens on the Coronavirus front, technology is clearly poised to go ahead in 2021, shifting the tech plates of business and consumer behavior. Here´s wishing luck to all the players.