Leveraging AI to Battle This Pandemic -- And The Next One

Over the past few months the world has experienced a series of Covid-19 outbreaks that have generally followed the same pathway: an initial phase with few infections and limited response, followed by a take-off of the famous epidemic curve accompanied by a country-wide lockdown to flatten the curve. Then, once the curve peaks, governments have to address what President Trump has called "the biggest decision" of his life: when and how to manage de-confinement. Throughout the pandemic, great emphasis has been placed on the sharing (or lack of it) of critical information across countries -- in particular from China -- about the spread of the disease. By contrast, relatively little has been said about how Covid-19 could have been better managed by leveraging the advanced data technologies that have transformed businesses over the past 20 years. In this article we discuss one way that governments could leverage those technologies in managing a future pandemic -- and perhaps even the closing phases of the current one.