The Covid-19 pandemic has carried a significant impact on the rate in which businesses are embracing digital transformation. The health crisis has created an almost overnight need for traditional brick and mortar shopping experiences to regenerate into something altogether more adaptive and remote. While some businesses are finding this transition toward emerging technology a little tricky, it's proving to be a significant opportunity for entrepreneurs in the age of the "new normal." Astoundingly, data suggests that digital transformation has been accelerated by as much as seven years due to the pandemic, with Asia/Pacific businesses driving forward up to a decade in the future when it comes to digital offerings. With entrepreneurs and new startup founders finding themselves in a strong position to embrace modern digital practices ahead of more traditional companies, we're likely to see a rise in innovation among post-pandemic businesses.

Almost every industry is seeking top quality Artificial Intelligence (AI) and analytics professionals across the world. Apart from top academic institutions, industry has also been targetting scientific research labs in order to tap those who possess competencies in quantitative techniques proficient in building models and are getting them oriented to design business solutions. The AI as a service market size was valued at $1.13 billion in 2017 and is expected to be $10.88 billion by 2023, thus opening up a huge demand for AI talent pool. The AI-powered services in the form of Application Programming Interface (API) and Software Development Kit (SDK) are primarily driving the demand for AI and analytics professionals. In addition to these, startups working on path breaking ideas are also in need of smart data science professionals.

SHAQIB Shaik is a software engineer at Microsoft. His artificial intelligence (AI)-driven mobile phone that he helped develop, is able to read out loud a menu sheet as it hovers over the menu. His AI-powered sunglasses, another of his invention, enables him to receive an audio commentary of the scenes observed through the glasses. We have AI helping Indonesia map out flood-prone areas even as AI helps the UAE to predict inclement sand storms. AI helped Mexico City map out its hitherto uncharted web of bus routes.