Customer service and support leaders are accelerating self-service initiatives to mitigate potential negative impacts of the pandemic, according to Gartner, Inc. More than 40% of customer service and support leaders have experienced increased service contact volumes compared to original 2020 projections due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The evolution towards an autonomous supply chain has already begun, and this transformation coincides and is driven by members of Generation Z (Gen Z), that have just started to enter the workforce, according to Gartner, Inc. Today’s supply chain leaders expect them to be innovators that accelerate supply chain digitalization and pave the way towards hyperautomation.

Continual high volumes of data creation have led to increased data center investments, boosting the need for power and cooling solutions that are environmentally friendly, highly efficient, and reduce the overall cost of ownership. The total investment in DCIS is expected to reach $26.15 billion by 2025 from $16.73 billion in 2019, up at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.7%.

5G slicing is a crucial enabler of new business models and a key concept to empower the potential of 5G. Communications Service Providers (CSPs) can slice their network assets using different criteria such as mobility, security, or traffic types.

The US has lost its status as the place foreigners would most like to work, with Canada now regarded as the top destination. The study shows that the pandemic has had a major impact on people’s attitudes toward work abroad, reducing their interest generally and inclining them toward countries that have done the best job of containing the coronavirus.

Global sales of connected TV devices soared to a new record in Q4 2020, reaching 109.1 million units, according to the latest research from Strategy Analytics’ TV Streaming Platforms service. According to the report, Amazon became market leader for the first time with sales of 13.2 million devices and a market share of 12.1%.

Through 2023, demand for robotic goods-to-person (G2P) systems will quadruple to help enforce social distancing in warehouses, according to Gartner, Inc. With G2P systems, the robots deliver the goods to a person who remains in one place. G2P systems are an easy and economical way to not only enforce social distancing, but also improve productivity.

Gartner’s survey revealed 68% of employees would consider quitting their current job and working with an organization with a stronger viewpoint on the social issues that matter most to them. Employees whose employer has taken a strong stance on current societal and cultural issues are twice as likely to report high job satisfaction.

A new study by Juniper Research has found that network operator spend on MEC (Multi-access Edge Computing) will grow from $2.7 billion in 2020, to $8.3 billion in 2025, as operators invest heavily in upgrading network capacities and infrastructure to support the increasing data generated by 5G networks.

Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis forecasts that global healthcare revenues in 2025 will exceed $2.6 trillion, up from $2 trillion in 2020. Catalyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the industry has adopted radical new advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and telehealth, along with new business models to support the rapid transformation. It is primed to witness a revolution in healthcare delivery over the next decade.

New research from Parks Associates reports more than 12 million US households have cancelled their home broadband service and use only mobile broadband for their internet needs. Adoption and Perception of Broadband finds there are more than 15 million households in the US that have only a mobile broadband service, which includes more than three million households that have never had a home internet subscription.

According to research by International Data Corporation (IDC), shipments of traditional PCs (a combination of desktops, notebooks, and workstations) in EMEA will total 96.4 million in 2021. Continuing lockdowns will result in maintained demand for devices that enable work/study/play-from-home use cases throughout the first half of 2021, with the strongest growth on record in 2021Q1 (39.1% YoY).

Global tech market advisory firm ABI Research examined the current Augmented Reality(AR) market and identified 12 AR solution providers in both consumer and enterprise markets that are leading in their area of expertise through novel solutions.

According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, 5G comprised less than 1% of IoT connections in 2020 but will rise to 40% of all the overall connections by 2030, as highlighted in its most recent IoT Market Forecast and Analysis report.

One year ago, COVID-19 was declared a global health emergency, impacting all sectors virtually overnight. With the pandemic hitting this benchmark, Forrester analysts are available for interviews to discuss how specific sectors have been impacted these past months worldwide, as well as what 2021 will look like as we keep adjusting to this “new normal.”

A new whitepaper from Parks Associates reports 40% of US broadband households have trialed at least one OTT video service during the COVID-19 crisis, while one-third of smart home device owners have increased usage of these products.

Worldwide revenues for the artificial intelligence (AI) market, including software, hardware, and services, are forecast to grow 16.4% year over year in 2021 to $327.5 billion, according to the latest release from IDC. By 2024, the market is expected to break the $500 billion mark with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.5% and total revenues reaching an impressive $554.3 billion.

A growing number of organizations are exploring the the state of latency sensitive applications as workforces becomes more distributed and infrastructures become more fragmented (as data centers, old mainframes, private clouds and multiple public clouds emerge as enterprise infrastructure coexist for the foreseeable future).

Massive MIMO (mMIMO) is proving to be the catalyst that will fuel infrastructure vendor revenue in the foreseeable future. This is especially the case in the Asia Pacific, where mobile network operators are expected to deploy 28.3 million units representing more than 78% of the total mMIMO market by 2026, despite the banning of Chinese vendors in the Western World.

Only 23% of B2B sales reps believe they are equally effective selling virtually as they are in a live, onsite setting, according to Gartner, Inc. However, Gartner’s survey showed that 58% of sales reps also report they have dedicated coaching sessions with their sales managers on effective virtual selling.