Think about this: for decades now, some of the most innovative and game-changing organizations on the planet have operated completely remotely and virtually from day one, releasing product after product, without even paying their participants.

With Industry 4.0 embraced at scale over the past few years, COVID-19 has only accelerated its influence in the manufacturing space.

In addition to responding to changing customer expectations, higher operating costs, new technology, and an evolving regulatory landscape, financial services organizations now also face the uniquely challenging business environment created by COVID-19.

While most of us are content to guess, there are other people who are actively figuring it out and their findings and educated assumptions could help us all prepare for the future. Among them is Ben Pring, IT futurist and cofounder of Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work, which tracks trends across technology, business and society.

Industry experts discuss the evolution of automation in manufacturing and how it can help the industry navigate the challenges of COVID-19.

Manufacturing stands to make considerable progress through Big Data and AI, but the complex challenges of the industry have slowed uptake.

The anticipated changes to the world of HR will give rise to the emergence of many new roles, which are highlighted in a recent joint report from Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work and Future Workplace: 21 HR jobs of the future.

“As HR leaders are often consumed with handling impending disruption to jobs due to automation, changing workforce demographics or multi-generational workforces, they have less time to address the key issue of how these massive transformations will impact the organisation – and fundamentally change the role of HR professionals,” said Robert Hoyle Brown, vice president of the Cognizant Centre for the Future of Work.

Cognizant formed its Embrace network to drive and support an inclusive working environment for LGBTQIA+ colleagues. The community has become more important than ever during the pandemic, when employees have not been able to be physically together.

The Boys & Girls Club of Paterson and Passaic says it has been providing local residents with more than 2,000 meals per week using a private donation that originally was supposed to for an after-school program.