Crisis plants the seeds of ingenuity, and as the world struggles out of the COVID-19 pandemic and into an unknown new normal, it’s clear that entire industries will be transformed by innovations that have emerged to combat the disease.

The world of work is changing faster than ever, and machine intelligence is at the centre of this change. Most recently, artificial intelligence (AI) has played a leading role in the fight against Covid-19. Scientists have used AI to help predict future outbreak zones, sift through research, and even run simulations on drugs to determine their efficacy.

It's safe to say most aspects of life will be quite different after the global coronavirus pandemic ends. A new report, "After the Virus" from digital firm Cognizant, looks at just how different things will be, from national politics to socioeconomics, work, business, and well, life in general.

After the coronavirus pandemic, the world will be quite different. Whether the lockdowns last weeks or months, very little will remain unchanged. In a bid to contain the spread of Covid-19, governments around the world have instituted health monitoring policies, leveraging GPS and other data from a variety of personal devices.

Countries around APAC are starting to phase slowly back into normalcy with additional safety measures like COVID-19 tracking apps for citizens. However traditional businesses have had to adapt to new realities of a post-virus world and the implications for CIOs will be profound. The days of the IT department being responsible for infrastructure and operations, with a relentless focus on cost reduction, are gone.

In a recent report forecasting life after the virus, Cognizant's Center for the Future of Work envisioned the creation of a massive Health Security Agency that would mandate automated illness scanning for any building, space or country.

“Inclusive leaders recognize the realities of what it means to work virtually and the need to be flexible," says Ben Pring, Director of Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work.

After the coronavirus global pandemic, the world will be quite different. Whether the current lockdown lasts weeks or months, very little will remain unchanged by COVID-19. A special report from Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work, After the Virus: A Special Report Looking Back on the Next Five Years, explores the most probable shifts across healthcare, education, retail, travel, technology, and government as the world becomes more connected and virtual.

The ongoing technological revolution continues to change the world in unforeseeable ways, which can make difficult the accurate forecasting of jobs we cannot yet imagine. Nevertheless, to help organisations and individuals prepare for changes we are expecting to see in the coming years, we embarked on the enormous endeavour of applying our knowledge across several industries to predict the new jobs that are likely to emerge over the next decade.

After the coronavirus pandemic, the world will be quite different. Whether the current lockdown lasts weeks or months, very little will remain unchanged by COVID-19. A special report from Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work, After the Virus: A Special Report Looking Back on the Next Five Years, explores the most probable shifts across healthcare, education, retail, travel, technology, and government as the world becomes more connected and virtual. The report was written from a future perspective – as if the events were being chronicled in 2025, tracing the changes that unfolded in the immediate years following this pandemic.

After COVID-19, banking will be much different than it was pre-pandemic. The change in the way people bank, the future of work, the use of modern technology and the value of brands will all depend greatly on the time it takes to settle on a 'new normal'. A look into the future provides a good foundation for what needs to be done today.

Having the ability to access additional information via augmented reality AR is becoming more commonplace as businesses realise the advantages this can deliver. Enhancing what people see via smartphones, tablets and – increasingly – head-mounted displays (HMDs), has the potential to transform many business processes.

The future of work is always in the future, but it is approaching much faster than ever before. We believe 2020 will be the year of realisation for many organisations and leaders. Here are our top five predictions of how the way we work, live and play will change in 2020.

Businesses have entered an era of eternal data-harvesting, making data an extremely valuable commodity. And for that reason, as with any other high-value asset, it is vulnerable.

A generation of executives uncomfortable with technology spell trouble for business longevity. While CIOs have ascended the ranks, many failed to translate technology’s benefits to business value.

The last quarter of 2019 saw a big jump in demand for a bundle of jobs that could dominate the future, per an index tracked by the IT services firm Cognizant.

Would you buy a product or service from a company you have not heard of but was recommended by your voice-based personal assistant? Well, 46% of consumers in Southeast Asia recently surveyed said they would.

To “beat the robots,” we shall need to join them. Robotic personal assistants will help buy back at least that 15 percent capacity (or more) needed for the skills of tomorrow. And that is nothing to be afraid of.

“With greater visibility of technology-driven initiatives, CIOs have to be better politicians than ever,” says Pring.

“In the future of work, the most successful companies will be those that manage intergenerational needs and factor in changing technologies in a way that makes sense for people of all ages,”...

Excerpts from The Wall Street Journal’s article: “The Business Roundtable, whose members include the chief executives of many big U.S. companies, is the latest organization to recognize one of...

“Due to a range of factors, a new age has dawned for the European banking industry, with the barriers to entry drastically lower,” writes Euan Davis, Associate Vice President, Center for the...

“The tools of the future are close, and it’s time for businesses to get ready to harness them,” writes Ben Pring, Founder and Managing Director, Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work....

Excerpts from Information Age’s article, reproduced with permission: “Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), although limited at the moment, will be a vital technology in improving...