CB Insights Industries Tech Shaping World Post Covid

24 Industries &
Technologies That
Will Shape The
Post-Virus World 2020
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Table of Contents
Healthcare: Using data, wearables, and VR 5

to make care more accessible
Work: Sudden surge in remote work 17

accelerates digital infrastructure adoption
Education: Technology and online content 22

make the classroom optional
Manufacturing: 3D and automation 27

technology boost industry’s agility and
flexibility
Retail: Shopping goes even more online as 31

grocery joins the e-commerce revolution
Customer service: Customer experience 36

goes virtual with conversational AI
Finance: Demand for contactless options 41

accelerates digital adoption
Security: Higher internet usage and data 47

generation lead to increased investment
Entertainment: “Real world” goes online 51

with virtual reality and virtual events
Food services: Social distancing propels 56

take-outs and deliveries to success
Life after Covid: Continuation or backlash? 61
24 Industries & Technologies That Will Shape The Post-Virus World 2

The Post-Covid World
In industries from healthcare to education
to finance to manufacturing, the pandemic
has forced companies to use technology
to reimagine nearly every facet of their
operations. We analyze the industries
poised to thrive in a post-Covid world.
As the Covid-19 pandemic charted its unprecedented path around

the world, it carried with it the question: What will Covid-19’s
legacy be?
From healthcare to education to entertainment to manufacturing,

technology innovators have stepped in to help answer that
question.
As NYU Stern School of Business professor and digital

transformation researcher Arun Sundararajan notes:
“Crisis can be… a catalyst or can speed up

changes that are on the way — it almost
can serve as an accelerant.”

In the wake of the outbreak, everything from doctors appointments
to schooling to workouts went online. As more people worked,
learned, banked, exercised, relaxed, and even sought medical care
from home during Covid-19, they received a crash course in just
how much can be accomplished at home.
A year into the pandemic, some countries have resumed daily life,
while some have seen resurging cases and renewed lockdowns.
As vaccines are doled out, a complete return to normal still
remains uncertain for many, but what’s certain is the fact that the
pandemic has fundamentally impacted several industries. Given
how far we’ve moved into digital spaces, it’s hard to imagine
people will return fully to brick-and-mortar alternatives, for one.
In some cases, the technological changes inspired by Covid-19

will come in the form of an acceleration of existing trends — for
example, industrial automation and contactless payments. In
other cases, like virtual reality, 3D printing, or telehealth, the crisis
may change the course of the industry, enabling companies to
demonstrate value that, until now, consumers have been unable or
unwilling to see.
In this report, we’ll explore some of the trends created or

accelerated by the onset of Covid-19 that are likely to change
the way we live, work, learn, and relax long after the pandemic is
completely over — and how the future of those innovations is likely
to unfold.

Healthcare: Using data, wearables, and VR
to make care more accessible
The Covid-19 pandemic pushed health services online.
Patients and healthcare providers rapidly adopted telehealth

services and remote health monitoring to deal with strained
hospital capacity and risk of infection. Mental health services and
gyms went remote due to social distancing and lockdown orders.
While remote technology in healthcare and related spaces may

have been met with resistance before, that changed in light of
the outbreak.
For example, in 2018, 18% of American doctors reported treating

a patient via telemedicine. During the pandemic, almost half
(48%) of all US physicians said they had treated patients virtually,
according to a recent survey. On the patient side, 60% of American
consumers said they were more willing to try telehealth services
due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
As infrastructure improves and these services become more

familiar, telehealth tech, continuous and remote diagnostics, remote
mental healthcare, virtual fitness, and aging-in-place technologies
could continue to grow even after the pandemic subsides.
Telehealth technology
SOCIAL DISTANCING DRAMATICALLY BOOSTS
TELEHEALTH ADOPTION
Industry proponents have been making the case for telehealth for
years, pointing to its potential to lower costs, ease pressure on
overextended healthcare systems, and make care more accessible
in rural and underserved areas.

In fact, about 75% of doctor, urgent care, and ER visits “are either
unnecessary or could be handled safely and effectively over the
phone or video,” according to the American Medical Association.
Still, consumer adoption of telehealth prior to Covid-19 was slow:

in July 2019, a JD Power survey found that only about 10% of US
residents had replaced a visit to the doctor, urgent care, or hospital
with telemedicine services in the 12 months prior.
Investment in telehealth technologies was strong pre-Covid, despite sluggish patient

adoption.
All of that changed with the Covid-19 pandemic. With traditional

healthcare capacities strained, patients turned to telemedicine as
a safe alternative to in-person visits.
Companies already working in telemedicine saw a dramatic boost

to their businesses. The largest stand-alone telemedicine provider,
Teladoc, reported 50% week-over-week growth in services the
week after stay-at-home orders were implemented across the US.

Source: Teladoc
Government entities also took steps to reduce friction for

businesses to offer telehealth services. In March 2019, US
government officials relaxed privacy restrictions under the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to allow
Apple, Google, and Microsoft to facilitate virtual doctors’ visits
through their existing chat and video apps, including FaceTime
and Skype.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also approved virtual

clinical trials to allow for ongoing drug development while facilities
are closed down.
Telehealth providers like Teladoc are optimistic that increased

demand under Covid-19 will translate to long-term growth in the
space, as many of its first-time users become repeat visitors.
Telehealth technology is estimated to be a $57B market, according

to CB Insights’ Industry Analyst Consensus. (For more on how
telehealth could improve the healthcare system, check out our
report here.)

Continuous & remote diagnostics
“TEST, TRACK, & TRACE” PROMISES TO ACCELERATE
ADOPTION OF HEALTH MONITORING TECHNOLOGY
Fitness trackers and other “quantified self” technologies were
already gaining traction in health and wellness prior to Covid-19.
For example, Google announced its acquisition of Fitbit in

November 2019 as part of its broader initiative to establish a
presence in the healthcare technology space on par with Apple and
the Apple Watch product.
With experts stressing the importance of rapid testing and tracking

in managing the Covid-19 crisis, wearables and other health
monitoring tech that enable diagnostics took center stage.
The pandemic underscored the value of readily accessible health

data — particularly as countries leveraging that information
have had greater success managing the crisis. As “Test, Track,
and Trace” became a public health slogan around the world,
government and public discourse quickly turned to companies
with the resources to make the requisite technologies a reality.
Source: DETECT

In the case of telemedicine, government entities eased privacy
regulations to facilitate more comprehensive remote diagnostics.
In March, the FDA eased restrictions related to marketing claims,
allowing developers of remote patient monitoring devices to pitch
their devices to hospitals. Big tech companies quickly jumped on
the opportunity.
In April 2020, Apple and Google launched a contact tracing app

together. After privacy advocates raised concerns about user
data security, the companies announced changes, including using
Bluetooth signals instead of geolocation data. Nevertheless, the
UK government announced that it would not use the companies’
technologies in its contact tracing app, citing ongoing privacy
concerns.
Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, among others, also joined a

consortium called The Covid-19 High Performance Computing
(HPC) Consortium to provide bioinformatics, epidemiology, and
molecular biology researchers with computing power to execute
computational research programs.
Tech giants weren’t the only companies that have spotted the
opportunity in remote diagnostics — some biotech companies
moved quickly to demonstrate value and capitalize on the eased
regulations as well.
For example, LifeSignals fast-tracked a single-use, wireless

biosensor patch for use in Covid-19 patient monitoring.
Meanwhile, Spry Health announced a clinician-led monitoring
service using its FDA-approved Loop wearable, which tracks the
wearer’s heart rate, oxygen saturation, and respiration.

Source: Spry Health
Teletherapy
SOCIAL DISTANCING FORCES MENTAL HEALTHCARE
PROVIDERS AND USERS TO EMBRACE REMOTE SERVICES
The uptake of online therapy prior to Covid was low, mainly
because healthcare practitioners were hesitant to take it on.
In addition to concerns about digital mediums lacking certain

face-to-face benefits, teletherapy also presents compliance
issues. Therapists are required to use video platforms that
are HIPAA compliant, which limits their options for online
conversation, though recent regulation changes have relaxed some
of these requirements.
Other issues include the limitations around therapists licensed in

certain US states not being allowed to practice in others, as well as
low insurance coverage for remote mental health practices.
But the Covid-19 pandemic forced the space to adapt. With social
distancing and lockdown orders in place, and with more people
dealing with anxiety and depression as a result, remote mental
healthcare became a necessity.

Funding for mental health startups increased more than 400% in
Q1’20 compared to the prior quarter, indicating that investors also
see an opportunity in the space.
Apps such as Wysa, Talkspace, and AbleTo — which were providing

online therapy services before Covid-19 — saw a huge surge in
demand. For example, Talkspace, a subscription-based service
that matches users with therapists based on specific needs and
goals, saw a 65% increase in users between March and April.
Meanwhile, a number of healthcare startups offered therapy for

free or at reduced costs. For example, Hims & Hers rolled out free
anonymized group therapy sessions — which will eventually cost
$15 each — to help users cope with the stress of the pandemic.
Talkspace also launched a Covid-19 Anxiety Management

Program, “which aims to provide its subscribers with a specific
process for managing stress and anxiety related to the pandemic’s
impact.”
As more people make a regular practice of tending to their mental

health over the course of the pandemic, teletherapy services
will likely see continued demand after the coronavirus outbreak
subsides. Additionally, the crisis could have lingering effects
on mental health even once social distancing orders are lifted,
ensuring that these services will still be needed.

Virtual fitness & gyms
$94B FITNESS INDUSTRY GOES DIGITAL AS BRICK-AND-
MORTAR GYMS FOLLOW IN VIRTUAL COUNTERPARTS’
FOOTSTEPS
The $94B fitness industry wasn’t immune to disruption from the
Covid-19 outbreak. In 2019, only 7% of surveyed Mindbody users
used fitness streaming services on a weekly basis. By April 2020,
that figure had grown to more than 80%.
Despite the rising popularity of virtual workout options — most

prominently embodied by Peloton — boutique brick-and-mortar
fitness was in a period of rapid growth prior to the crisis, with
memberships growing over 120% from 2013 to 2017, according to
Bloomberg. That growth, already slowing by late 2019, ground to a
halt in the wake of the pandemic.
In the US alone, more than 350K fitness instructors and trainers

were forced to shift to virtual classes. Many of them adapted by
using existing video-streaming apps that are not necessarily built
for the purpose, such as Zoom, Instagram Live, FaceTime, and
YouTube. Seventy-two percent of fitness club owners began to
offer on-demand or livestreamed workouts, up from just 25% in
2019, per ClubIntel.
Meanwhile, brands that were already virtual-first saw dramatic

increases in adoption during the crisis. Sales of the interactive at-
home fitness brand Mirror doubled in the weeks following Covid-
19’s arrival in the US. The average number of daily sign-ups for
workout streaming platform NEOU grew 600% in one week.

Fitness technology companies stepped in to help brick-and-
mortar fitness companies navigate the transition to more closely
resemble their digital-first competitors.
ClassPass, which has a business model that is highly dependent

on brick-and-mortar fitness, launched its video platform through
its website to support instructors through the transition. Aaptiv,
a leading provider of audio fitness programs, announced a
partnership with brick-and-mortar fitness curator Xponential to
provide content to its members.
As the Covid-19 crisis abates, in-person fitness may see a rebound

over time. However, the added convenience of virtual fitness —
and the lower prices of digital classes compared to those in
studios — likely means that it’s here to stay. It could also see
higher adoption rates from brick-and-mortar facilities looking to
future-proof their business.

Senior care & aging in place
SENIORS AND CAREGIVERS EMBRACE TECHNOLOGY AT
HOME AND IN CARE FACILITIES
Eldercare has long been a target for technological innovation, with
advocates highlighting the practical and infrastructural challenges
presented by 73M baby boomers aging into their retirement years.
With Covid-19 proving particularly lethal among patients age 60

and older, the crisis has further illuminated the need for solutions
that help seniors age at home in comfort, while also providing
family and caregivers with peace of mind.
Source: Vela
Prior to Covid-19, some seniors and their families were already

embracing technology as a solution that would allow them to stay
in their homes longer. However, widespread adoption of aging-
in-place technologies was slow to take hold, largely because of
the need for greater patient education and technological literacy
among the target population.
But with self-isolation and social distancing particularly important

for seniors, the pandemic presented a unique opportunity for a
range of senior care technologies to demonstrate the importance
of their products and services.

For example, Umbrella, a services marketplace aimed at providing
aid to seniors, announced that it would coordinate contactless
delivery of essentials to adults over 60. Telehealth provider
VitalCare offered its platform to senior living and long-term care
facilities free of charge for 90 days during the crisis.
Source: Senior Housing News
Residential senior care facilities also took measures to upgrade

their digital infrastructure. In addition to ensuring continuity
of medical care for residents, communication and addressing
loneliness became equally critical. As the population density of
these facilities and the vulnerability of residents made social
distancing imperative, care facility leaders turned to digital
communication platforms to connect residents with family
and friends.

ConnectedLiving, a senior living communication app, reportedly
saw a large increase in interest amid the coronavirus pandemic.
CEO Sarah Holt says:
“Now that separation and isolation [is

essential to fighting Covid-19], the need
to connect residents with their families
went from ‘nice to have’ to ‘an absolute
must-have.’ It’s a sad consequence, but
there is no other way [to communicate].”
As technology proves its value to the senior community during

the Covid-19 crisis, digital infrastructure is likely to become a
permanent fixture of senior care, both in-home and in care facilities.
Going forward, on-site care facilities will likely bolster investments

in digital technologies including teleconferencing, telemedicine,
and remote diagnostics, creating opportunity for companies that
can accommodate facility-sized demand.
Consumer adoption of digital communication and monitoring

technologies for seniors will also continue to increase as comfort
and technological fluency increase.

Work: Sudden surge in remote work
accelerates digital infrastructure adoption
Employers boasted workplace flexibility and remote work as major

benefits to hire employees amid the historically low unemployment
rates in the US in 2019.
As social distancing measures confined people to their homes,

these trends became necessities.
Many companies transitioned from working in offices to working

from home. Technology like virtual reality and video conferencing
apps helped employers and employee balance productivity with
well-being.
Telecommuting tech
REMOTE WORK ACCELERATES TRENDS IN PRODUCTIVITY
SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
While the adoption of popular productivity tools was strong and
growing prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, teleconferencing tools
such as Skype and Zoom were considered mere add-ons by
companies.
The introduction of remote work policies as part of sheltering in

place dramatically accelerated the adoption of these tools. Video
conferencing is expected to account for 50% of the remote work
market over the next five years, up from 10% to 15% currently.
Companies in every sector had to adapt to the challenges of a
suddenly distributed workforce. Zoom’s share price soared nearly
400% in 2020 due to skyrocketing demand for its service.

As a result, tech companies experienced overwhelming demand
for their services and unprecedented strain on their networks.
For example, from March 13 to March 19, Microsoft Teams added
approximately 12M new users.
Source: Business Insider.
Spotting an opportunity to grab market share, some

teleconferencing players announced free services or removed
usage limits on free offers to accommodate the swell of remote
workers during the pandemic.
As telecommuting tech companies grow, some are grappling with

privacy issues. For example, Zoom has been criticized for critical
vulnerabilities in its security protocols, including video calls being
hacked, lack of end-to-end encryption, and in-app surveillance.
The company has responded by halting development of new
features and is reportedly working on fixing these issues. Going
forward, end-to-end encryption, identity verification, and enhanced
permissions controls are just some of the security features that
tech companies are likely to prioritize in their conferencing tools.

Companies are also adapting their products to minimize
disruptions in the remote working experience. For example, in
response to user feedback gathered since the outbreak of Covid-19,
Microsoft developed an algorithmic noise-reduction feature for
Teams that automatically mutes ambient sounds during meetings.
The company also developed a number of additional features for
Teams, including a “raise your hand” feature to indicate when a
meeting participant wishes to speak; support for offline access;
and an integration with RealWear industrial headsets.
While teleconferencing apps will almost certainly be part of the

“new normal” once the pandemic subsides, the similarity between
products may mean it is unlikely that one company will emerge
the winner.
Enterprise virtual reality

SHIFT TO VIRTUAL TRAINING ACCELERATES $12.6B
ENTERPRISE VR INDUSTRY
Enterprise VR hardware and software were already expected to
become a $12.6B market by 2025 prior to the onset of Covid-19.
Corporates have been finding ways to use the tech for several
years.
For example, in 2015, automotive manufacturer Ford reduced its

production line injury rate by 70% using virtual reality training. In
2017, Walmart used VR platform Strivr to prepare its associates
for Black Friday, training employees within a lifelike simulation of
the long lines and crowds. The company purchased over 30K VR
headsets to provide more than 1M employees with virtual training.

With social distancing orders in place and many businesses
switching to remote work, VR tech companies had an opportunity
to demonstrate their value to enterprises in unexpected
circumstances.
In healthcare, VR was used to facilitate safe training. For example,

Oxford Medical Simulation offered its VR training system free of
charge to hospitals and medical schools that needed to train large
numbers of staff on treating coronavirus patients.
Source: Oxford Medical Simulation
VR also helped businesses across industries keep operations

running. Real estate agents relied on virtual tours to continue
showing properties. In March 2020, VR headset maker HTC held
its first fully virtual VIVE Ecosystem Conference, the first physical
industry event that was fully replaced by virtual and augmented
reality technologies, and many events have since gone virtual
as well.
The road to greater VR adoption will not be without hurdles.

Industry experts have pointed to current VR/AR hardware’s
limitations in terms of battery life, storage capacity, and
computational capacities as factors slowing the technology’s
adoption. Cost has also been a barrier.

But with social distancing suggesting that many in-person tasks
can be performed safely, efficiently, and at scale in the virtual
world, virtual reality could eventually become a permanent fixture
of enterprise infrastructure.

Education: Technology and online content
make the classroom optional
Schools and universities have been updating their infrastructure to

incorporate digital alternatives to the classroom for years, leading
analysts to predict a $350B market valuation for the edtech
industry by 2025 prior to the pandemic.
The onset of Covid-19 forced a much faster expansion. In the

US alone, over 91,000 public and private schools were closed
as of March 25, impacting more than 50M students. Teachers,
administrators, students, and parents around the world scrambled
to find solutions that would enable learning to continue.
Education is commonly said to be countercyclical, with demand

increasing in times of economic downturn. Remote learning
technology and online courses supported that thesis in ways that are
unlikely to completely reverse course after the pandemic subsides.
Remote learning technology

DIGITAL LEARNING INFRASTRUCTURE COULD SEE LONG-
TERM BOOST IN K-12 AND SECONDARY LEARNING
Digitizing educational infrastructure has been an ongoing project
over decades, but adoption has been slow, hampered by limited
budgets and concerns about insufficient access among some
student groups.
As Covid-19 forced classrooms to go remote overnight, edtech

companies saw an unprecedented surge in users. For example,
EdSights, a startup that connects college students with school
resources, doubled its customer base to 30 paying universities in
the 3 weeks following the virus outbreak in the US, after taking a
year to secure its first 16 customers.

But the transition wasn’t entirely seamless. Schools and teachers
faced issues from functionality to tech literacy to insufficient
access for students. A suite of edtech companies stepped forward
to offer free support:
• Chat and video messaging platform Pronto made its

communication platform free for university professors dealing
with coronavirus-related challenges during the 2020 spring
and summer terms
• Top Hat, a “student engagement platform” with features

including attendance tracking, Q&A capabilities, interactive
presentations, and discussion-management tools, made its
platform free to professors and students to complete the
current term.
• Verbit, a company that provides AI-generated transcription

and captioning services, offered educators free access to its
Zoom integration through April 9
Big Tech companies also took steps to demonstrate their

products’ value to customers in the education space. At the
beginning of March, Google announced free access to advanced
Hangouts features for customers of its G Suite for Education.
Similarly, Microsoft made its Teams platform free to higher
education customers.
Digital learning infrastructure still has much room for

improvement, but as the tech evolves, K-12 schools and
universities will likely continue to incorporate it into their education
plans even after the virus recedes.
Meanwhile, tech giants like Microsoft and Google will continue

to invest in their education projects, capitalizing on their existing
relationships with parents as well as teachers and administrators
who already use their products for other purposes.

Online courses & content
CODECADEMY, UDEMY, AND COURSERA MOVE TO
TRANSLATE SHORT-TERM DEMAND INTO LONG-TERM
GROWTH
Historically, market downturns have triggered a rise in demand for
graduate-level programs as young professionals seek to avoid a
harsh job market and look for ways to augment their skills while the
economy stabilizes. But due to uncertainties about the duration of
economic instability — as well as ongoing national conversations
about student debt — an increasing number of people have turned
to online courses, bootcamps, and trainings instead.
Multiple e-learning startups specializing in online course content

reported substantial growth in interest in their products in the
wake of Covid-19.

Massive open online course (MOOC) provider Udemy reported
a 425% increase in enrollments from February to March 2020.
The most in-demand courses on the platform have included
professional skills (Adobe Illustrator, technical drawing) and child-
oriented content, including art and coding.
Recreational topics, including guitar and Pilates, also saw a spike,

highlighting how online learning’s potential extends beyond
traditional education and professional development.
But not all developments in online course content happened

outside of traditional educational contexts. Some companies
partnered directly with schools and universities to provide their
content to students.
Source: Coursera
In April 2020, online learning startup Coursera introduced

CourseMatch, which pairs university course catalogs with
Coursera classes to identify which online curricula best matches
existing on-campus offerings. Coursera also reported significant
growth in enrollment in its Coursera for Campus, with more than
3,000 colleges and universities joining the program.
Learning in physical classrooms will ultimately resume, but the

partnerships and technology integrations happening today will
bring about long-term changes to how we teach and learn.

Though the promise of edtech continues to be widely touted, the
pandemic has illustrated the wide disparities in education, and
how access to remote instruction is a luxury for many. Children
from disadvantaged backgrounds are disproportionately affected:
students of color are projected be 6 to 12 months behind in math,
compared with 4 to 8 months for white students; in fall 2020,
engagement in online math class dropped by 16% for low-income
students (a decrease from 41% in the spring), compared to 2% for
high-income kids, per McKinsey.
Going forward, edtech companies must be vigilant about the

accessibility of courses to fulfill the promise of greater class
selection and flexibility.

Manufacturing: 3D and automation technology
boost industry’s agility and flexibility
The coronavirus pandemic has exposed how vulnerable the

manufacturing and logistics industries are when confronted with a
sudden, widespread disruption in human labor.
Covid-19’s effects on the manufacturing space are far-reaching. It

took 3 years for manufacturers to return to pre-crisis levels in the
2008 financial crisis, but the Covid-19 pandemic is expected to be
worse, per Oliver Wyman.
A survey from PwC highlighted other prominent concerns,

including the effects on workforce and productivity (41% of those
surveyed), disruptions in supply chains (21%), and “not having
enough information to make good decisions” (17%).
We can expect businesses to take steps to insulate themselves

from similar disruptions in the future. This will likely include
increased investment in flexible, scalable, automated solutions
that reduce the industry’s dependence on human labor and help
manufacturers adapt to changing market conditions. 3D printing
and automation are particularly primed to facilitate that evolution.
3D printing
MEDICAL EQUIPMENT SHORTAGE HIGHLIGHTS THE
POTENTIAL OF AN UNDERESTIMATED INDUSTRY
As far back as 2012, proponents were predicting that 3D printing
would usher in a “third industrial revolution.” But as of 2019, it
largely failed to gain traction outside of niche industries and
hobbyists. The equipment was expensive and companies lacked
the in-house expertise required to operate it.

The Covid-19 outbreak shifted that perspective. 3D printing tech
had the opportunity to put its flexibility and adaptability to use in
matching rapidly changing demand.
The most prominent example was in healthcare equipment

manufacturing, which struggled to scale up production to meet
the drastically increased demand for critical equipment including
respirators, face masks, and testing swabs. 3D printing providers
stepped up to help fill in the gaps.
For example, Stratasys, owner of leading 3D printer brand

MakerBot, co-sponsored an innovation challenge with Mass Gen
to design printable ventilators.
UNYQ, which manufactures 3D-printed prostheses for amputees,

also converted its facilities to support emergency medical supplies
manufacturing.
Another company, Origin, was one of four 3D printing companies

that received authorization to provide 3D-printed medical
equipment directly to healthcare providers. “With 3D printing, we
can bring new designs to the market very quickly, and [the quality
of the printers] are good enough to print things that work in the
field,” noted Chris Prucha, founder and CEO of Origin.

These strengths are likely to continue to appeal to manufacturers
after the immediate threat of Covid-19 has receded. Companies
that can meet the specialized requirements of the healthcare
industry could see a sustained boost in demand, as hospital
networks and other providers look to augment the supply of
essential equipment and materials in a cost-effective way.
3D printing — which constitutes a $67B global market, according

to CB Insights’ Industry Analyst Consensus — will also continue
to see increased adoption in industries including manufacturing,
automotive, and robotics, thanks to its value in rapid prototyping.
Industrial automation and robotics

CONTAGION RISK ADDS NEW URGENCY TO INDUSTRIAL
AUTOMATION
Automation was already on the rise prior to Covid-19, thanks to
declining costs, improved functionality, and a broadening range of
contexts in which robotics can be safely deployed.
As the pandemic set in, corporations found themselves facing

a lose-lose situation: shut down factories and warehouses and
let business grind to a halt, or keep the factories open and put
employees at risk. Companies including Tesla and Amazon
faced criticism for keeping factories and warehouses open and
endangering employees’ safety.
But automation offered a solution. Companies specializing in

industrial automation and robotics saw a marked increase in
demand as factories scrambled to find ways to keep assembly
lines moving.
For example, supply chain automation startup Fetch Robotics,

which provides autonomous mobile robots to warehouses, saw a
63% increase in inbound requests from February to March 2020.

Source: Fetch Robotics
“The thing that we’re hearing from customers is that many of their
budgets have been frozen except for budgets for automation,” says
Fetch CEO Melonee Wise. “We’ve been fielding a lot of inbound
from new customers around, ‘How can robots enable us to
continue manufacturing while keeping social distancing?’”
Automation is not a stopgap — it’s a permanent shift in the way

that companies do business. The organizations that move to
further automate their operations during the crisis will most likely
keep those automations in place after the crisis has passed, and
adoption will spread beyond them as other companies automate
to keep up.

Retail: Shopping goes even more online
as grocery joins the e-commerce ranks
Between disruptions to the global supply chain, widespread store

closures, lingering economic uncertainty, and rapidly declining
consumer confidence, retailers were justifiably anxious about how
their businesses will survive.
However, some believe that the pandemic has merely accelerated

trends that were already well underway. For example, online
grocery services had already been gaining steam, while lockdown
and shelter-in-place orders made them a necessity for millions of
people.
Covid-19 may have revealed the weaknesses inherent in the just-

in-time logistics favored by many supermarket retailers, but it
also created new opportunities for companies to shore up those
vulnerabilities.
Online grocery
SURGING DEMAND DRIVES TECHNOLOGICAL
INNOVATIONS IN THE SPACE AND CREATES JOBS
Prior to Covid-19, the online grocery market was a high-growth
sector dominated by major retailers, such as Amazon and Walmart.
But it only accounted for about 6% of the wider grocery retail

market.

Source: OneSpace
The pandemic drove unprecedented demand for online grocery

services, including many consumers trying online grocery delivery
for the first time. Independent retailers and nationwide chains alike
struggled to keep up. Orders that once took hours to fulfill were
delayed by weeks in areas hit particularly hard by Covid-19, such
as New York City.
Larger players with significant spending power, like Amazon and

Walmart, invested in emerging technologies, such as automated
fulfillment. Meanwhile, many smaller grocers that lack the
resources to invest in automation turned to third-party services
like Instacart.
Instacart experienced a 150% increase in orders in March 2020.

The company is reportedly seeking to hire an additional 300,000
personal shoppers to accommodate the demand.

FreshDirect, an online grocer serving the New York City
metropolitan area, saw a 60% increase in online activity in March
2020 compared to the same period in 2019. Target saw sales for its
curbside pickup program grow by 734% year-over-year in Q2’20.
While some retailers struggled to fulfill orders, the sudden increase

in demand created opportunities for others, such as UK-based
e-grocer Ocado. The company has no retail stores, instead
shipping groceries directly to customers from warehouses across
Great Britain.
While Ocado’s customer fulfillment centers employ human

workers, the facilities are extensively automated with sophisticated
robotics. The company has licensed its technologies to other
retailers such as Kroger in the US.
Source: Supermarket News
Prior to Covid-19, even larger retailers had little incentive to make

significant investments in automation technologies. But the
vulnerabilities revealed by the pandemic are likely to accelerate
investment in this kind of tech, as grocery retailers seek to insulate
themselves and protect their employees from future public health
emergencies.

Takeoff Technologies, an automation specialist that works with
grocers to build automated fulfillment centers, has seen a double-
digit increase in orders, suggesting that current trends may
continue in the long term.
Going forward, larger retailers such as Amazon and Walmart

will likely increase their share of the online grocery market by
augmenting their online grocery shopping experience with
technological innovations, such as 3D renderings of items, as well
as customer service improvements and faster delivery times.
Enhanced e-commerce
AS PHYSICAL STORES HAVE BEEN FORCED TO CLOSE, AR/
VR TECH HELPS CUSTOMERS TRY PRODUCTS BEFORE
PURCHASING
While AR and VR technologies for e-commerce have gained
traction in furniture, fashion, and beauty industries, they have
largely been a fringe experience for the majority of customers and
categories.
However, as brick-and-mortar stores were forced to temporarily

close during the pandemic, retailers turned to AR/VR to replicate
the physical shopping experience at home in order to help
consumers purchase products.
Ikea, Wayfair, Target, and Lowe’s had already been rolling out AR
and VR features that let customers view pieces of furniture in their
homes or in virtual showrooms. Beauty companies from L’Oreal
to Sephora also embraced the technology, using apps to help
customers virtually try on makeup before purchasing.

Meanwhile, the fashion industry adapted by turning to livestreams,
virtual catwalks, and digitized collections. Joor, which helps high-
end designers create virtual showrooms, said that activity on its
platform during the Paris Fashion Week in 2020 was 2.5x higher
than average.
Eventually, viewers could be able to use an “exhibition mode”

in livestream shows, allowing them to swipe through designer
information, save items they like, and instantly access an order form.
To further enhance the experience, technologies such as haptic
gloves could help prospective customers get the feel of a garment.
The pandemic forced retailers and brands to go all in on their

online operations, and the momentum virtual commerce gained
seems likely to carry over to a post-virus world.
Some experts, however, aren’t so sure. Dan McCarthy, assistant

professor of marketing at Emory University, has noted that,
because only 14% of total furniture sales in the US were previously
made online, it would make sense that this segment would grow
tremendously during the pandemic. But “to the extent that the
pandemic is a short-lived phenomenon, when those stores reopen,
that will bring that 86% of the [brick-and-mortar furniture] supply
back on the market.”

Customer Service: Customer experience
goes virtual with conversational AI
Store closures and physical distancing measures made customer

service challenging. In addition to fulfilling orders and processing
sales, many customer support teams have found themselves
fielding a drastically higher number of calls from customers with
questions about return and cancellation policies, store closures,
and more.
Firms that leverage technology such as conversational artificial

intelligence (AI) and cloud-based call centers may find themselves
able to navigate the post-Covid-19 world more easily than those
reliant on face-to-face interactions — a dichotomy that seems likely
to divide the service economy even further in the coming years.
Conversational AI/chatbots
BANKING, HEALTHCARE, RETAIL SECTORS LIKELY TO
EXPERIENCE SIGNIFICANT GROWTH IN CHATBOT USE
Prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, the banking, healthcare, and
retail sectors relied heavily on conversational agents to bolster
customer support functions. Chatbots were on pace to save these
sectors more than $11B by 2023.
With face-to-face customer service interactions severely limited,

chatbots and virtual assistants became more important than ever.
Understanding the need to meet consumers where they are, many

retailers embraced chatbots as part of broader social media
engagement strategies. Brands including H&M and Sephora
launched conversational agents on messaging platform Kik, while
Burberry and Tommy Hilfiger deployed their own chatbots to
Facebook Messenger.

Going forward, companies seeking to optimize their e-commerce
capabilities may rely more heavily on conversational agents as the
volume of online orders increases and consumers seek new ways
to purchase goods and services online. Dom, a chatbot developed
by Domino’s Pizza, is just one example of how conversational
agents may become a more central part of the online ordering
experience across a range of verticals.
While the vast majority of retail and banking chatbots are

customer-facing, JPMorgan has been pushing the boundaries
of what bots can accomplish in its back-end operations. The
company has used chatbots to automate routine tasks formerly
handled by administrative employees since 2017. These include
granting individual employees access to specific software systems
and resetting user passwords.
Since the onset of the pandemic, many governments and local

authorities implemented chatbots to help address dramatic
increases in demand for support services. For example, the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) deployed a
conversational agent on its website to help people self-identify
potential symptoms of Covid-19 and decide whether to self-isolate.
Health organizations also made use of chatbots. Providence St.

Joseph Health, which has a presence in 6 western states, is using
an automated screening tool using technologies developed by
Microsoft to determine whether patients should seek in-person
medical treatment.

Source: Providence St. Joseph Health
Portea Medical, an in-home care provider in India, partnered with

automation developer Verloop to create Cobot-19, an automated
engagement platform designed to curate and disseminate
information from sources including the World Health Organization
and the CDC.
Conversational agents also helped state governments handle

an unprecedented increase in demand for municipal assistance.
The state of Texas, which saw weekly unemployment claims
peak in early April at more than 313,000, used chatbots to answer
claimants’ questions about the status of their applications. The
chatbot, which was developed in partnership between the Texas
Workforce Commission and Accenture, can now handle up to
20,000 concurrent users.
Meanwhile, Google’s Cloud Services business offered customers

the option of developing and deploying customized “Rapid
Response Virtual Agents” to alleviate pressures on call centers as
part of its Contact Center AI service offering.

Chatbots and virtual assistants comprise a market worth an
estimated $7.7B, according to CB Insights’ Industry Analyst
Consensus. In a post-Covid-19 world, the greatest competitive
differentiators for developers of chatbots will be the quality of
information available to consumers and the ease of interaction.
Cloud call centers

AI TECHNOLOGY COULD DRIVE FASTER RESPONSE TIMES
AND BETTER SUPPORT
Over the past decade or so, many companies moved their call
center operations from physical offices to cloud-based solutions.
Remaining on-premises call centers were largely been disrupted

by the pandemic. In March 2020, Verizon was forced to suspend
operations at its call centers in Elgin, South Carolina and
Wilmington, North Carolina, after employees tested positive
for Covid-19. Customer service representatives at call centers
operated by Kohl’s and Wells Fargo also tested positive for
Covid-19, prompting the temporary closure of the affected facilities.
With physical distancing measures in place, cloud-based call

centers became a popular option for organizations seeking to
maintain support operations.
Source: Verizon via Twitter

Cloud contact center service provider Five9’s Intelligent Cloud
Contact Center product was deployed in Detroit, New York City,
and Orlando to assist in handling the substantial increase in
call volume to those cities’ Covid-19 informational hotlines. The
company also launched its Five9 FastTrack program, which aims
to help companies migrate on-premises call center operations to
the cloud within 48 hours.
Contact center software developer Bright Pattern offered “special

virtual call center capability” as a business-continuity service for
companies seeking to maintain support operations during the
pandemic. Similarly, remote patient communications developer
TriageLogic introduced a virtual call-center product using its
existing telehealth technologies to let healthcare organizations
deploy virtualized support systems, including HIPAA-compliant
cloud-based telephony services.
Website-creation platform Wix launched a virtualized cloud-based

contact center just 7 days after being asked to develop such
a system by the Israeli government. Volunteers staffing Wix’s
Volunteer Call System helped more than 11,000 Israeli citizens
during the program’s first 3 days of operation.
A partnership between Amazon Web Services (AWS) and

ServiceNow to offer an AI-driven “contact center-as-a-service”
product suggests these services could become commonplace
even after the pandemic, as more companies seek to reduce their
support costs while maintaining or improving current levels of
customer care.

Finance: Demand for contactless options
accelerates digital adoption
The transition to digital has been a long time coming in the finance
industry. Fintech innovations, including contactless payments,
mobile financial services, and loan and insurance tech have all
been climbing steadily for years.
Regulation will play a significant role in how opportunities in

the fintech space take shape in a post-Covid world. Financial
regulators have accelerated existing innovation initiatives in the
wake of Covid-19, according to a survey by the World Bank Group.
In March 2020, South Korea announced plans to temporarily ease
regulations on fintech as part of an effort to accelerate economic
recovery as the virus receded in the country.
In any event, given the mixture of convenience and peace of mind

that digital financial services offer, it’s likely that they’ll sustain
their growth after lockdowns end.
Contactless payments
EARLY SIGNS POINT TO STRONG, LASTING SHIFT TOWARD
CONTACTLESS PAYMENTS
Contactless payment options were already on the rise before
Covid-19. Apple, Google, and Samsung began adding virtual
wallets to their mobile products as early as 2014. Amazon has
also been moving toward implementing contactless payment
processes in its physical locations.
Given heightened concern around physical contact as a result

of the coronavirus, long-term adoption of contactless payment
options seems more likely.

Public sentiment shifted dramatically in favor of contactless
payment options in the wake of Covid-19. Surveys found that an
increasing share of consumers consider contactless payments to
be a basic, required feature of products.
Businesses quickly took steps to align with customer demand,

with grocery stores, restaurants, and other essential businesses
adopting contactless payment options.
As Mastercard Acceptance Solutions VP Blake Rosenthal explains:
“Social distancing does not just concern

people’s interactions with each other;
it includes contact with publicly shared
devices like point of sale terminals and
checkout counters. Contactless offers
consumers a safer, cleaner way to pay,
speed at checkout, and more control over
physical proximity at this critical time.”
Businesses that had not already incorporated contactless payment

options into their point-of-sale (POS) systems prior to Covid-19
moved to do so. For example, grocery chain Publix announced that it
is now accepting Apple Pay and other contactless payment methods.
Tech companies also moved to augment their contactless options.

Fitbit expanded support for contactless payments, announcing in
April 2020 that a prepaid wallet feature will come standard in the Fitbit
Charge 4 after previously being available only on premium models.

The small business sector also saw an increase in adoption of
contactless options. While 40% of small businesses remained
nonoperational due to the pandemic, 27% of those that
continued to accept on-premise payments reported an increase
in contactless payments made through smartphones and
contactless cards.
The proportion of SMBs deploying contactless payment tech

jumped to 39% at the end of the year from 20% in June, per Visa.
Also, 65% of consumers surveyed by Visa said they’d prefer to use
contactless payments as much as, or more, than they are currently.
With the infrastructure already in place and consumers afforded

ample opportunity to test-drive the new technology due to
Covid-19, it seems likely that contactless payments will emerge as
a societal norm.
Branchless banking
TRADITIONAL BANKS COULD LOSE MORE THAN 40% OF
REVENUE TO DIGITAL COMPETITION
Branchless banking was already on the rise prior to Covid-19,
with neobanks and fintech startups like Chime, Simple, and
Revolut aiming to replace traditional brick-and-mortar financial
institutions altogether.
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, digital banking has become a

necessity. With many branches closed, mobile has become the
default customer banking channel. April 2020 alone saw a 200%
jump in new mobile banking registrations.

The opportunity in branchless banking is substantial enough that
fintechs in other areas are expanding to offer banking services
as well. In October 2019, robo-advisor Betterment introduced a
series of cash-management products, including high-yield savings
and checking with ATM. In May 2020, micro-investing app Acorns
followed suit, adding a Spend Account alongside its investment
and retirement products.
There are also benefits on the business side. Branchless banking

means less capital spent on people and physical locations, and
more available for customer acquisition and engineering.
In the wake of stay-at-home orders, more consumers turned to

digital alternatives for taking care of their finances, especially as
most avoid physical branches.
Now that consumers have gone through a lengthy, albeit unasked-

for, pilot program in digital-first banking, demand for digital
banking solutions is likely to continue. Incumbent banking players
will have to take steps to meet that demand — or risk losing market
share to their younger, smaller, more digitally savvy competition.
Parametric insurance
FORMERLY NICHE INSURANCE PRODUCTS COULD SOON
BECOME MAINSTREAM
While some organizations routinely invest in specialized insurance
policies to protect themselves from outlier events, these policies
are not commonplace. The Covid-19 pandemic may change that.
As the severity of the pandemic and the costs of the response

continue to intensify, parametric insurance policies may soon
become more attractive to a wide range of businesses, particularly
if the cost of parametric insurance premiums falls as more
insurers enter the market.

Parametric insurance — also known as index-based coverage —
is relatively new. Unlike traditional insurance policies, parametric
insurance plans cover policyholders only when specific conditions
are met.
For example, a policy might stipulate that an insurer is liable to

pay policyholders only if an earthquake of a minimum magnitude
were to strike in a specific geographic area within specific time
constraints. If one or more of those criteria are not met, the insurer
is not liable to policyholders.
Parametric insurance policies have historically been challenging to

underwrite due to the difficulties inherent in accurately modeling
financial risk during natural catastrophes. However, the pandemic
has brought the value of and need for parametric insurance into
sharp focus.
The 2020 Wimbledon event illustrates this point. After announcing

the event would have to be canceled, reports emerged that the
organizers of Wimbledon had paid approximately $1.9M every year
since 2003 for pandemic insurance following the SARS outbreak.
In exchange, Wimbledon is expected to receive a hefty payout of
approximately $142M for the cancellation of the 2020 event.
Demand for Covid-19 insurance coverage intensified in the months

following the outbreak. However, underwriting these policies is
difficult for insurers, as they did not have access to reliable data
concerning rates of infection or death, making accurate risk
calculations almost impossible.
The inaction of individual governments also presented a challenge,

because the lack of detailed response plans in place complicated
insurers’ efforts to calculate the costs of providing pandemic
insurance. Even relatively comprehensive insurance policies often
include language or clauses stipulating that damages or losses
incurred as a result of viruses or “contamination” are not covered.
This type of clause was introduced by many insurers following the
SARS outbreak of 2003.

Still, the highly specific and often nuanced conditions under which
payments are made often preclude policyholders from making
claims. Several developing nations participating in a $320M
“pandemic bond” program devised by the World Bank didn’t see
payouts until months later, despite suffering heavy casualties from
Covid-19, while investors received interest payments by the end
of February. The bond program was highly criticized for its strict
“activation criteria,” which one economist described as “wait[ing]
for people to die” before payouts could occur.
Going forward, insurers can expect to face litigation from

policyholders seeking to recoup losses incurred by events such
as pandemics. Several lawsuits have already been filed in federal
court by plaintiffs whose business-interruption claims were
denied by a Wisconsin-based insurer. Similar lawsuits are likely to
become common as insurers adjust the terms of their policies to
shield themselves from additional liability.
In addition to primary qualifying triggers, such as the emergence

of a viral pathogen, it is almost inevitable that insurers will include
other criteria for policyholders to be eligible for payouts, such as
minimal casualty thresholds or industry-specific indices such as
decreases in the value of individual commodities.

Security: Higher internet usage and data
generation lead to increased investment
Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, an increasing amount of

capital was being devoted to cybersecurity. As more people work
remotely, cybersecurity budgets are only going to increase.
Widespread remote work has revealed chinks in organizations’

security systems. Separately, long-standing technologies related to
data privacy and surveillance tech are once again coming into focus.
Personal surveillance technology

INVASIVE SURVEILLANCE TECHNOLOGY IN EXCHANGE
FOR SAFETY MAY BECOME MORE ACCEPTABLE
Personal surveillance technology became an important tool to
stem the spread of the coronavirus. The global video surveillance
market alone is expected to be worth $75B by 2025, up from $50B
in 2020.
However, there has been a long-standing movement against

collection of private data in Europe and the US. The enactment
of the GDPR in the EU in 2017 was a victory for privacy activists.
But with the gravity of the threat posed by Covid-19, surveillance
technology became more widely accepted in order to help track
and mitigate transmission of the virus.
Governments from South Korea to Israel to India used data

collected from mobile carriers, mobile apps, and credit card
companies to trace movements of potentially infected people. In
China, a mobile application used for contact tracing also asked
users to put in their national identification numbers and names.

Technology giants also pooled resources to track people’s
movement. Google’s Covid-19 tracker uses data from users’
mobile phone locations to analyze how movements across
communities changed as a result of the pandemic. Google also
partnered with Apple to introduce an update across Android
and iOS, 2 dominant mobile operating systems, that will ensure
seamless contact tracing through mobile devices.
Source: Google
In the US, Facebook is leading a consortium of companies and

researchers from numerous universities, called the Covid-19
Mobility Data Network. This collaboration aims to help local
officials assess the effectiveness of social distancing interventions
using data from mobile devices.
Meanwhile, several camera makers across the globe claimed

their infrared and thermal imaging cameras can detect fever, thus
helping in screening sick people in a post-Covid 19 world.

Some experts believe that, even after the pandemic comes to an
end, thermal imaging cameras will remain in use — including in
non-health-related surveillance.
Distributed cybersecurity
REMOTE WORK & EDUCATION MAY TRANSFORM
CYBERSECURITY INTO A $250B ENTERPRISE
While cyberattacks have always been a part of online life, they
spiked during the Covid-19 pandemic, in some cases increasing by
more than 3x month-to-month.
Much of the world moved to remote work; online shopping and

delivery services saw surging demand; and online streaming
services became the go-to source for entertainment. These entry
points gave cyberoffenders more room to find susceptible targets.
Source: Recorded Future

Reports of increased cybercrime amid the pandemic were
rampant. In the US, enforcement officials reported that criminals
were selling fake cures for the coronavirus online, reaching out to
people posing as intergovernmental organizations or the WHO.
There were also reports of malware in online resources used for
tracking Covid-19.
A shift to remote work and education created new privacy issues

on video platforms as well, with the security of the most popular
teleconferencing app, Zoom, under heavy scrutiny. Disruptions
and attacks on video calls from hackers and trolls were known as
“zoom-bombing” in the early months of the pandemic.
Phishing scams where attackers assume the identities of

healthcare and other aid organizations to extract sensitive
information increased. Public sector organizations working
on relief work were also targets of cyberattacks: The National
Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization, along with
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, were targeted in April 2020.
Cybersecurity spending hit an all-time high in 2020, garnering a

whopping $11.4B — a near 50% increase from 2018. Going forward,
organizations are expected to increase spending on cybersecurity
measures, as well as train employees to deal with these situations.
As distributed work and education increasingly become a part

of regular life after the Covid-19 crisis, security concerns around
these applications will likely persist. Businesses are more likely to
establish stringent corporate security and compliance structures
to facilitate more remote workers. With this continued growth,
the global cybersecurity market is estimated to be worth $245B
in the coming years, according to CB Insights’ Industry Analyst
Consensus.

Entertainment: “Real world” goes online
with virtual reality and virtual events
While on-demand entertainment options such as Netflix, Disney

Plus, and Amazon Prime were gaining ground before the Covid-19
pandemic, in-person live events such as concerts and events,
gaming leagues, and food festivals remained popular. But with
venues shut down and large gatherings prohibited temporarily,
many consumers sought out virtual simulations of these
entertainment experiences.
For nascent spaces like e-sports and virtual reality, home

quarantines brought on a large number of new consumers into the
fold, leading to an increase in demand that’s unlikely to end when
lockdowns are lifted.
Event organizers are also thinking much more ambitiously about

how to hold large-scale events online. Events that may have
once seemed improbable or even impossible to hold online are
becoming commonplace and will likely continue.
Social online gaming

GAMERS, ONCE ACQUIRED, ARE LIKELY TO STICK WITH
E-GAMING
Gaming has been on the rise for several years, as faster internet
connections and mobile gaming provide millions with the
infrastructure to play online.
The video game industry as a whole is estimated to be worth

$163B, per CB Insights’ Industry Analyst Consensus.

E-gamer leagues and platforms that livestream e-gaming events
have both increased. Twitch, an online gaming platform owned
by Amazon, is the leader in e-sports streaming, with 1.1M active
streamers per quarter.
Source: Investopedia
As people across the globe sheltered in place, gaming was one

of the main activities keeping them engaged. Verizon’s chief
executive, Hans Vestberg, said in March 2020 that internet traffic
from video games was up by 75% since movement was restricted
across the US. This was much higher than overall video streaming,
which went up by only 12%, and social media usage, which
remained relatively flat.
Source: CNN Business

Since gaming emerged as a way to connect socially during the
pandemic, it’s likely that it will stick around as a social activity
after the pandemic ends. Gaming is better equipped to gain lasting
users when compared with other online mediums of entertainment,
because it can foster unique forms of socialization.
An Australian online gamer, Burnie Brodie Weeding, told The

Advocate:
“It’s a really good way to socialise and

keep in touch with people. We might take
a break during a game and I head outside
with my headset and a beer and we keep
chatting, and then we go back to the game.”
E-gaming’s success also gained attention from traditional sports

franchises. As major sporting events, such as FIFA, NASCAR, and
Formula 1, were canceled to maintain social distancing norms, they
are exploring e-games as a way to keep their audiences engaged.
Virtual events
MORATORIUM ON LARGE GATHERINGS DRIVING
INNOVATION IN SPORTS, ENTERTAINMENT, GOVERNMENT
Virtual events were nothing new before Covid-19. Many
conferences have offered virtual tickets for years, particularly
within the technology sector, and events from fashion shows to
e-sports tournaments routinely offered live webcasts to viewers
unable to attend in person.

The emergence of Covid-19, however, had a profound impact
across the events industry. Many events that offer virtual tickets in
addition to in-person passes moved entirely online, and most in-
person events were canceled entirely.
To avoid losing additional revenue, some events took innovative

approaches to hosting virtual events and expanding their online
event programming.
• For example, in April 2020, organizers held a Virtual Grand

National horse race in the UK using computer graphics and
special algorithms to simulate the race.
• The annual WWF CN Tower Climb for Nature fundraising

event, scheduled to take place in Toronto, Ontario, instead
challenged supporters to climb 1,776 steps — the number of
steps required to reach the top of Toronto’s iconic CN Tower —
anywhere they could, using fitness trackers, and participants
were encouraged to share their stories using a social media
hashtag.
• The Seattle Symphony Orchestra began hosting live

broadcasts of virtual performances, special Q&A sessions with
musicians, and programming for families with young children.
• Fortnite hosted several in-game film screenings, music video

premieres, and concerts, and Travis Scott’s virtual concert
drew an audience of 12.3M players.
• Lawmakers in the UK convened the first-ever “Parliament via

Zoom” — making it the first time in more than 700 years that
Parliament had not sat in the House of Commons.
However, the necessity of virtual events may have a lasting impact

on event revenues — many organizers are unable to charge the
same fees for virtual events.

The Covid-19 pandemic may also have a significant impact on
how event management companies hire. Crisis management,
contractual expertise, and a different set of marketing and
technology skills are all areas in which event planners hope to
improve in the future.

Food services: Social distancing propels
take-outs and deliveries to success
The sit-down restaurant industry was already unbundling

before the coronavirus outbreak. Casual dining chains such as
Applebee’s and TGIFriday’s were already in decline, as millennials
and other consumers prioritized eating at chains offering healthier
food options and chose to order in. Stay-at-home orders only
accelerated this decline.
While a shift toward delivery-only restaurants likely would have

happened over the next decade or so, this change would now
happen “instantaneously,” according to David Chang, founder of
the Momofuku restaurant group.
As more food businesses embrace a made-for-delivery approach,

delivery-first restaurants and industrial kitchens seem poised to
emerge as winners on the other side of this pandemic.
Restaurant & grocery delivery

FOOD DELIVERY APPS SEE FLOCKS OF NEW
RESTAURANTS; SOME PIVOT TO GROCERIES TO MAINTAIN
RELEVANCE AMID LOCKDOWN
Food delivery has already seen a surge in popularity over the last
few years, as funding and tech innovation have brought increased
attention to the space. Media discussion of last-mile food delivery
has also continued to build steadily.

The Covid-19 crisis has only accelerated the rise of various delivery
services into becoming an integral part of customers’ lives.
Grubhub took on 20,000 new restaurants in March 2020, compared

with its previous monthly high of 5,000. Separately, food-delivery
apps have been offering grocery delivery services in a bid to
remain relevant amid the pandemic. Uber Eats partnered with
Europe-based supermarket giant Carrefour in France to offer
30-minute home delivery of essentials. The US company inked
similar partnerships in Spain and Brazil.
Source: TechCrunch

This move to grocery delivery for food-delivery apps is likely to
continue in a post-Covid-19 world. Raj Beri, Uber Eats’ head for
Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, believes “grocery
will be a large part of what we’re doing,” with a focus on everyday
top-up items rather than staples.
Amazon is trying its hand at food delivery once again, after leading
a $575M round in UK-based Deliveroo in August and participating
in another $180M round in January. Amazon also launched its
online food delivery service, Amazon Food, in India last year.
Cloud kitchens
SOCIAL DISTANCING MEASURES PUSH NICHE “VIRTUAL”
KITCHENS INTO THE MAINSTREAM
Cloud kitchens — also known as dark kitchens, virtual kitchens,
or ghost kitchens — are food service outlets that take orders and
deliver them without offering the option to dine in.
Virtual kitchens were already an ascendant trend in 2019. Dine-

in restaurants faced battles related to automation and shifting
millennial preferences, and this served to shift investment in favor
of food delivery, particularly cloud kitchens.
Even as the overall online food delivery space saw funding fall by
21% in 2019, the popularity of virtual kitchens only increased.
They received nearly $520M in funding, up 12.5x compared to a
year earlier.

With Covid-19 forcing people to stay at home, demand for food
delivery from these cloud kitchens is only going to increase. While
many restaurants were unable to keep workers on payroll, some
cloud kitchens in the US hired staff to keep up with demand: C3, a
ghost kitchen subsidiary of SBE Entertainment Group, announced
plans in April 2020 to hire 1,000 workers to run nearly 138 of these
virtual kitchens by the end of 2020.
Source: CNBC
While Travis Kalanick’s CloudKitchens is the most well-funded

startup in this space, with $400M in funding, companies such as
Kitchen United and Panda Selected have also raised mid-stage
deals. Ordermark raised $120M to build a decentralized ghost
kitchen in October 2020.

Kitopi, a UAE-based delivery kitchen that sources, cooks, and
delivers online orders on behalf of partner restaurants, raised a
$60M Series B in February 2020 to fuel its US expansion.
Additionally, hotelier Accor and retail group Simon Property

partnered with SBE Entertainment as well as Kalanick’s
CloudKitchens to open more than 100 virtual kitchens in the US
by 2021.
Like Uber Eats, other ride-hailing companies are getting into

the space. Singapore-based Grab has opened a number of
GrabKitchens, while rival Gojek has partnered with Indian food-
service giant Rebel Foods to open 100 cloud kitchens in Indonesia
by the end of 2021.
As we continue wading through the economic downturn brought

on by Covid-19, restaurants and food service providers are likely
to keep costs minimal to ensure healthy operations. This is where
cloud kitchens will come in, picking up increased demand from
customers as well as servicing restaurants that want to keep
overheads low.

Life after Covid: Continuation or backlash?
While we anticipate the many trends we’ve highlighted will see

continued strength even post-pandemic, there is always the
possibility of a stark shift in consumer preferences and a backlash
against the norms that have been forced upon people amid social
distancing measures. The rollout of vaccines may render many
newly formed habits obsolete as people resume daily life in
closer contact.
For example, many employees have bristled at the challenges of

remote work and education, particularly when paired together in
homes with working parents and young children.
Several industries could see a resurgence if public sentiment

skews in the opposite direction:
• Location-based events, such as concerts, conferences,

and talks.
• Restaurants (although they will need a substantial infusion

of capital to recover losses).
• Brick-and-mortar experiences, such as wine-and-paint

shops, dancing, etc.
Even as some reopenings go into effect and vaccines are deployed,

“normal” daily life is still far off for many. It remains to be seen
which new ways of working and living consumers wholeheartedly
adapt to, and which ultimately become a vestige of the pandemic.

Additional reading
This report was created with data from CB Insights’ emerging

technology insights platform, which offers clarity into emerging
tech and new business strategies through tools like:
• Earnings Transcripts Search Engine & Analytics to get an

information edge on competitors’ and incumbents’ strategies
• Patent Analytics to see where innovation is happening next
• Company Mosaic Scores to evaluate startup health, based on

our National Science Foundation-backed algorithm
• Business Relationships to quickly see a company’s

competitors, partners, and more
• Market Sizing Tools to visualize market growth and spot the

next big opportunity
If you aren’t already a client, sign up for a free trial to learn more
about our platform.

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24 Industries &

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Healthcare: Using data, wearables, and VR 5

Work: Sudden surge in remote work 17

Education: Technology and online content 22

Manufacturing: 3D and automation 27

Retail: Shopping goes even more online as 31

Customer service: Customer experience 36

Finance: Demand for contactless options 41

Security: Higher internet usage and data 47

Entertainment: “Real world” goes online 51

Food services: Social distancing propels 56

Life after Covid: Continuation or backlash? 61

24 Industries & Technologies That Will Shape The Post-Virus World 2

As the Covid-19 pandemic charted its unprecedented path around

From healthcare to education to entertainment to manufacturing,

As NYU Stern School of Business professor and digital

“Crisis can be… a catalyst or can speed up

24 Industries & Technologies That Will Shape The Post-Virus World 3

In some cases, the technological changes inspired by Covid-19

In this report, we’ll explore some of the trends created or

24 Industries & Technologies That Will Shape The Post-Virus World 4

The Covid-19 pandemic pushed health services online.

Patients and healthcare providers rapidly adopted telehealth

While remote technology in healthcare and related spaces may

For example, in 2018, 18% of American doctors reported treating

As infrastructure improves and these services become more

24 Industries & Technologies That Will Shape The Post-Virus World 5

Still, consumer adoption of telehealth prior to Covid-19 was slow:

Investment in telehealth technologies was strong pre-Covid, despite sluggish patient

All of that changed with the Covid-19 pandemic. With traditional

Companies already working in telemedicine saw a dramatic boost

24 Industries & Technologies That Will Shape The Post-Virus World 6

Government entities also took steps to reduce friction for

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also approved virtual

Telehealth providers like Teladoc are optimistic that increased

Telehealth technology is estimated to be a $57B market, according

24 Industries & Technologies That Will Shape The Post-Virus World 7

For example, Google announced its acquisition of Fitbit in

With experts stressing the importance of rapid testing and tracking

The pandemic underscored the value of readily accessible health

24 Industries & Technologies That Will Shape The Post-Virus World 8

In April 2020, Apple and Google launched a contact tracing app

Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, among others, also joined a

For example, LifeSignals fast-tracked a single-use, wireless

24 Industries & Technologies That Will Shape The Post-Virus World 9

In addition to concerns about digital mediums lacking certain

Other issues include the limitations around therapists licensed in

24 Industries & Technologies That Will Shape The Post-Virus World 10

Apps such as Wysa, Talkspace, and AbleTo — which were providing

Meanwhile, a number of healthcare startups offered therapy for

Talkspace also launched a Covid-19 Anxiety Management

As more people make a regular practice of tending to their mental

24 Industries & Technologies That Will Shape The Post-Virus World 11

Despite the rising popularity of virtual workout options — most

In the US alone, more than 350K fitness instructors and trainers

Meanwhile, brands that were already virtual-first saw dramatic

24 Industries & Technologies That Will Shape The Post-Virus World 12