Social distancing, face masks, staying home, these are terms that are now the new norm for society. Though many are holding on to hope that those terms will soon be history, we are forced into a reality that keeps that from happening today. With tolls rising for the infected, hospitalized, and fatalities, there is a sentiment of doing whatever it takes to get this virus under control. But we still have to do the mundane and thanks to this current climate we are seeing tech evolve at a much faster rate in some sectors.
Before the Coronavirus, many of my local grocery stores did not have touchless pay turned on their credit/debit card machines. Despite touchless payment being around for years, many of your stores did not see this need to make a push to make those upgrades. Now I am noticing that those same stores now have NFC payments turned on so that customers can pay using Google Pay, Apple Pay, or other touchless payment methods.
I’ve even noticed changes at the workplace where companies have updated their technology to allow for the adjustments of people working remotely. Changes that I begged for months before, now made available because it is needed to keep the operation running. Businesses conducting meetings and processing paperwork with everyone located in a different location across the world. These are the changes that will continue to shape our world even after the virus is no longer a major threat.
I see us getting very close to a reality where pizza-making robots are the staple of pizza chains across the nation. In a world where everyone is concerned with sanitation, what better way to limit the spread of germs than to remove another area in which human contact can be made.
The Coronavirus will soon be beyond us, but the environment it has created for the technology field will continue to be far-reaching and everlasting.
