during the Covid-19 period , in the case of some companies, a question of life or death. this is explicable and understandable. During confinement, we depended entirely on the Net for most things: from work and education to socialization. It is the online services that allowed us to keep a semblance of normalcy, and it is only natural that "online" should be the largest beneficiary of the pandemic, giving a tremendous boost to technologies and processes that enable us to do things remotely: universal broadband internet, mobile and remote payments, and workable e-government services, among others. As a direct consequences, businesses that were already operating online are bound to benefit from a lasting competitive advantage. As more and diverse things and services are brought to us via our mobile and computers, companies in sectors as disparate as e-commerce, contactless operations digital content, robots and drone deliveries ( to name just a few) will thrive. It is not by accident that firms like Alibaba, Amazon, Netflix or Zoom emerged as "winners" from the lockdowns.
Article Information and Communication Technology in Organizations: I...
may be of interest. The article demonstrate that with increasing impetus from the 1980s, and COVID-19 of late, information and communication technology (ICT) has become a powerful driver of change. Past the immediate dynamism that ICT has brought to organizations, the article considers second-level impacts on economy, society, work, and the very act of organizing. The article explains that organizations must now learn to leverage ICT for agility and showcases different interpretations of the changing nature and function of individual and collective leadership.
Yes, Covid-19 has some positive influence in promoting digitization. It has made decision makers to think about investing on IT. It has also changed attitude of the public about the technology. So, the pandemic has accelerated the digitization.
Yes, the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the digitization and internetization of communication, remote communication processes, economic processes, etc. digitization of the economy, the development of e-learning, the implementation of ICT information technologies and Internet applications to economic, financial, research, education processes, etc. The result of this type of pandemic crises is also an increase in the digitization of economic, information, etc. processes implemented in business entities and public and financial institutions . Since the first wave of the pandemic, i.e. since March 2020, there has been a significant acceleration in the development of e-commerce, e-banking, e-logistics, etc. Many small companies, including service companies subject to lockdown, increased the scale of their activities on the Internet, transferred a significant part or all of their sales to Internet. Many companies from the SME sector, only during the pandemic period, created sales platforms for their product and / or service offer on their websites. In 2020, the main factor behind the decline in international trade, international capital flows and other factors of production, international economic cooperation, etc., was the development of the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) coronavirus pandemic. However, the decline in sales revenues and profits does not apply to all enterprises and branches of the economy. It can already be observed that there are sectors in which enterprises record sales increases. For example, companies developing sales via the Internet, developing e-commerce, commercial networks that offer sales via the Internet, etc. Also Internet new media, including social media portals, are a type of media and, at the same time, a type of companies that, despite the potential decrease in advertising revenues, may notice relative increase in importance and share in the media market. Therefore, digitization of the economy is currently taking place in many areas of economic processes and in the functioning of many economic entities and public, financial and other institutions. In many industries and sectors, more and more companies develop their activities via the Internet, remotely providing their services and selling their products via e-commerce. Many companies that previously did not do this are now switching to remote, electronic operations via the Internet. Internet marketing is growing in importance, including viral marketing, public relations, videoconferences, etc. over the Internet. The development of electronic banking is also increasing, including internet and mobile banking. The share of electronic, cashless payments via the Internet and payments with electronic bank cards is increasing. Therefore, the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic may result in a significant increase in the share of payments made electronically in the context of all payments made in domestic economies. In addition, the ongoing technological progress may lead to an increase in the implementation of Industry 4.0 technology into economic processes in the future. Therefore, in the next dozen or so years, technology, including artificial intelligence and learning machines, can replace humans in many workplaces. This may be a growing problem for the labor markets and for the fiscal system in the future. The economic downturn caused by the pandemic, including the economic recession in 2020, forced many economic entities to carry out repair and development restructuring processes in their business.As part of remedial restructuring, the companies optimized costs, and as part of development restructuring, they implemented new technologies to survive the difficult period of economic downturn. Moreover, the conducted development restructuring processes strengthen the business in the context of the occurrence of similar economic crises in the future. In view of the above, the pandemic also caused an increase in the implementation of Industry 4.0 technology into economic processes, remote communication processes, etc. During the pandemic, there was an increase in such Industry 4.0 technologies as robotics, artificial intelligence, learning machines, the Internet of Things, cloud computing, Big Data Analytics, etc. These technologies are implemented, inter alia, to improved crisis management systems, pandemic risk management, improvement of anti-pandemic safety systems and instruments. Autonomous robots help in hospitals in the process of caring for people suffering from Covid-19, in patrolling city parks, etc. Artificial intelligence technology and machine learning are used in the development of intelligent data mining systems and in the development of avatars acting as call-centers and customer advisors on websites. Smart technologies are used to develop systems for current, local pandemic information available on smartphones.
Best regards,
Dariusz Prokopowicz
Yes, Covid-19 definitely accelerated the global digitization. Changes came to all spheres of business and public. And these changes here to stay. Those who actively used IT before now are benefiting the most. Those who preferred traditional offline strategies and tactics learned a lot.
You can find some elements in the following articles, which describe the acceleration of deployment of new technologies due to the pandemic
Article How techs are transforming work and why the current accelera...
(Original French version: Article Comment les techs transforment le travail et pourquoi l’accé...
)Article Occupational hazards in a post-pandemic world
(Original French version: Article Risques professionnels dans un monde du travail post-pandémique
)
I also said last year that the value of AI and machine learning to data analytics can be distilled into three separate value propositions: speed, scale, and convenience. All three have been realized during the pandemic. We are likely going to see continued exponential growth in power as the virus continues to spread.
However, please refer to the below articles related with your query-
Article Digital transformation, covid-19 crisis, digital transformation.
Article The panorama between COVID-19 pandemic and Artificial Intell...
Article Building a post COVID-19 Configuration between Internet of T...
Article Does Covid-19 help Sustainable Business Configuration throug...
definitely.
Article Electronic intensive care unit: A perspective amid the COVID...
Article Telemedicine: a new normal in COVID era; perspective from a ...
these changes/advances are bound to stay
There have been too many "accelerations".
The websites you mentioned are in the "crosshairs" of the judiciary of each country, for their "dominant position" in the market to which they belong.
The "coronavirus pandemic" has also been used in this sense.
I have already written on the subject.
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Covid-19_an_exageration?_ec=topicPostOverviewAuthoredQuestions&_sg=cqGjLWmh5HRJoI3c0H8S345NnmQR-eX35mdSDBWLvodmSNQjOvf-i1pDbFqeGissS0Jb3fGfSnczqa55
COVID is not the only factor, many factors can be counted such as the paradigm shift we are witnessing in communication technologies, AI, etc.
Certainly, it has become an integral part of consumers and the businesses need to catch the pace of consumer digitalization. Digital is no more a choice but a necessity for the businesses and this pandemic has certainly accelerated this need of adoption.
But in developing countries, it will take time to adapt as hardware, software, skill and training ; all are in developmental phase