Tech Innovation to Improve Resiliency and Agility Will Be Critical Post-COVID-19, Says Lux Research

Five key trends are shaping the future of tech innovation across all industries

COVID-19 has drastically changed the landscape for businesses across all industries, forcing immediate changes – but ones that will have long-term consequences. In the latest report by Lux Research, “The Impact of COVID-19 on Tech Innovation,” Lux outlines five key trends that will define how the world beyond the pandemic will be different.

The five trends that are shaping the post-COVID-19 future are infection prevention, remote commerce, improving resiliency, greater agility, and macroeconomic impacts. Each of these trends can have a positive or negative influence on an emerging technology. By considering the effects of these trends on technology, we can see how industries are being transformed.

Lux predicts that increased agility and resilience will drive long-term positive change for materials innovation. Materials informatics will also see a medium-term positive impact thanks to increased efficiency and agility in R&D. We expect a positive effect on plastic waste recycling and synthetic biology, as more people are gravitating to single-use plastics to stay safe, and synbio can allow more agile and flexible production.

The energy industry will see a number of key changes. Lux predicts that increased resilience and agility will drive further investments in clean energy, spurring on the energy transition. Bio-based and synthetic fuels, however, will be hard-hit by macroeconomic funding constraints and low oil prices. With increased energy use out of the home thanks in part to remote working conditions, home energy management is predicted to have a positive medium-term impact, led by remote commerce and improved resiliency.

Digital transformation will rapidly accelerate adoption of emerging technologies like telemedicine, thanks to a dramatic increase in remote commerce and the need for infection prevention. Wearables will also see a positive near-term lift as they aid in infection prevention and reopening efforts. There will be an upward trend in robotics due to the need for infection prevention and improving resiliency. COVID-19 will push major manufacturing and logistics operations to assess the potential of robotics moving forward.

The agrifood and health ecosystems will see positive growth in omics, which are a powerful suite of technologies for fighting COVID-19. In food, ingredient informatics and plant-based proteins will benefit, as they allow for increased resilience and agility in the food value chain.

The future of the mobility industry is more varied. Autonomous vehicles will experience a long-term positive impact due to social distancing preferences but near-term are delayed due to disruption of development and pilots. Shared mobility is a mixed bag, as ride-hailing is severely negatively affected in the near term, while micromobility solutions provide an alternative that better suits social distancing measures. The long-term consequences for electric vehicles will be minimal, as adoption will continue to be driven by regulations that for now have not drastically changed.