The relentless evolution of tech is constantly opening up new possibilities for a more intelligent world. Of late, technologies such as blockchain, IoT, AI, and edge computing enable enterprises to reduce their manual efforts, stay secure, and collect real-time insights.
Moreover, destabilizing global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical unrest in Europe, and the specter of an impending recession have accelerated the adoption of emerging technologies across industries because they have highlighted the need for resilient and adaptable systems. In this context, technology, particularly digitalization and automation, is proving to be a critical tool for businesses striving to navigate uncertainty while maintaining operational efficiency and competitiveness.
As the trend continues to grow and change the tech facet forever, we’ve hand-picked 3 industries witnessing massive disruption.
#1 Digital Freight Forwarders
In logistics, digital freight forwarders are the intermediaries facilitating the movement of goods, all through digital tools. The orchestrators behind the scenes coordinate with parties at all stages of the journey, such as booking cargo, documentation, customs clearance, and navigating the intricacies of international tariffs and trade policies.
Replacing traditional paper-based processes with digital platforms, freight forwarders are enhancing the global supply chain’s efficiency, enabling real-time visibility and tracking, and overhauling the logistics landscape.
The far-reaching impact of freight forwarders is evident from this report, which claims a CAGR growth of 23.1%, taking the industry’s value to USD 22.92 billion by 2030.
The impressive growth can be linked to several benefits of digital freight forwarding, such as increasing cross-border trade, e-commerce, and cooperation between countries. Moreover, technological advancements such as IoT have made tracking, monitoring, and controlling shipments easier.
#2 Digital Healthcare
The pandemic was an eye-opener that exposed the crumbling infrastructure of global healthcare. During those months, the demand for digital services immediately increased, raising global awareness about their necessity.
Digital health transformation has a multifaceted impact. It improves patient outcomes and achieves personalized treatment plans by enabling quicker diagnosis and remote monitoring. Subsequently, it provides faster access to medical records and telemedicine options. In addition, it empowers healthcare providers with data-driven insights, leading to more effective care delivery.
Several factors contribute to the increasing popularity of digital health transformation. These include the rapid development of digital infrastructure, including IoT-driven wearables, telehealth solutions, blockchain-driven peer-to-peer patient data sharing, AI for early detection, and more.
However, the pandemic revealed the urgent need for digital infrastructure to make healthcare more efficient. In fact, the digital health market is expected to touch USD 660 billion by 2025, with a record-breaking CAGR of 25%.
Various healthcare startups offer general medical and wellness care, mental health counseling, and chronic disease management through digital channels. Such platforms host a network of licensed healthcare practitioners who use video conferencing to engage with patients.
#3 Metaverse: Redefining Digital Realities
In 2021, the world woke up to a whole new parallel universe called the metaverse, where physical and digital realms converge, and users can engage with immersive experiences. Since its inception, the metaverse has found comprehensive use cases, especially those involving NFTs and other blockchain-enabled tokenization.
The metaverse is not just addressing challenges but rewriting the course of interactions in the digital realm. It offers solutions for bridging geographical distances through immersive telepresence, enabling people to connect and collaborate as if they were in the same physical location. It tackles the limitations of traditional online communication by providing richer, more expressive forms of interaction, fostering a sense of presence and community.
As the metaverse began to move into the mainstream, enterprises jumped at the opportunity to explore small-scale use cases such as training, meetings, conferences, events, etc. This enabled them to test the waters before going full-throttle with the service.
Among many sectors, real estate is embracing this immersiveness faster than others. Through pre-built metaverse ecosystems, customers and organizations can now
purchase virtual space, build functional assets and engage a vibrant community. These platforms let users scale their virtual experiences with an extensive library of pre-built content. Global enterprises have begun exploring social platforms, games, or fully customized virtual real-estate spaces.
What’s ahead?
Increasing support for emerging technologies will result in groundbreaking transformations. The arrival of highly improvised internet bandwidths such as 5G will fasten the adoption. Therefore, developers, enterprises and users should detach from conventional practices and prepare for a new generation of applications.
