tech trends

7 Tech Trends for 2021

2020 was one of the most unpredictable and overall weird years to date. Most, if not all, industries underwent massive changes to the way they operate.

January 2021

2020 was one of the most unpredictable and overall weird years to date. Most, if not all, industries underwent massive changes to the way they operate. The tech industry was one of the few victorious ones, in a year where we all lost in some way. Here are Lisbon Nearshore’s top 7 tech trends for 2021:

🧬1 Biotechnology and Regulation

The astoundingly quick emergence of COVID vaccines and the record-breaking pace at which regulatory agencies approved them, presents a new framework for dealing with infectious diseases. This proved that the regulatory process can be made more efficient and that biotechnology can be used to bring new drugs into the market.

🖥️2 Digital Transformation

Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, stated that in 2020 “we’ve seen 2 years’ worth of digital transformation in 2 months”. The digitalization of processes and businesses will continue to grow at full speed in the coming years, with 6.8 trillion USD being directed into digital transformation investments until 2023.

💊3 Disruption of the healthcare industry

In 2020, Amazon:

  • Expanded Amazon Care, its telemedicine unit, to a broader range of employees, planning to scale the service to other companies.
  • Launched a pharmacy unit, Amazon Pharmacy, an online prescription marketplace and home delivery platform. The 312$ billion US pharmacy and drug stores is poised for a serious disruption.
  • AWS launched Healthlake, a healthcare analytics platform which holds the potential for analyzing population health trends, matching patients to clinical trials or standardizing unstructured clinical data, for example.              
  • Expanded its Amazon Transcribe Medical, a service that enables you to add medical speech-to-text capabilities to an application.
  • Launched Care Hub, a free feature in the Alexa app that allows you to check in on loved ones under your care. “Alexa, call for help” is a feature that will call and send a notification to your phone if your loved one asks for help.

These developments are going to be furthered and expanded into 2021, with a lot of other players – Google, Apple, and Microsoft – venturing into the sector.

🚗4 China and self-driving cars

The CCCP wants 50% of all cars to be driverless by 2025. AutoX, a ride-hailing platform backed by Alibaba, has deployed a fleet of 100 autonomous vehicles in Shanghai. Didi, the Uber of China, plans to deploy more than 1 million autonomous vehicles in the country by 2030.

⚔️5 USA vs China – what will a Biden cabinet do?

One of the main themes of Trump’s presidency was its trade war with China. Joe Biden is against this aggressive stance towards China and in 2021 we can expect the tensions to appease.

🛒6 Ecommerce will continue its splendid growth

E-retail revenues are projected to almost double by 2022. The Covid-19 pandemic put what was already an accelerated growth on steroids, and there are no signs of it slowing down for the near future. By 2022 1 in every 4 purchases on the planet will be done from an online device.

🏠7 Remote Work is here to stay

Remote Work was already gaining popularity before the current pandemic. Companies like Basecamp or GitLab have been paving the road for fully remote, distributed organizations, over the last decade, and many companies all over the world were already offering the occasional day or two of home-office to their employees. In 2021, with countries still struggling to contain and manage Covid-19, remote work is going to continue to be the norm for the tech industry. We are going to see some companies start adopting the hybrid office model; while others will ditch their offices altogether. Many companies have even started subsidizing employees’ home office setups and electricity and internet costs.

With 2021 already starting on the wrong foot, with several countries under strict lockdowns, vaccines facing a supply shortage and a projected economic downturn for the first 6 months of the year, businesses that are able to adapt, spot opportunities and differentiate themselves from their competition will be poised to thrive in the years to come. Lisbon Nearshore wishes everyone out there to be safe, and that 2021 may be the year where we all make a comeback!