Prior to the pandemic, there were rumblings about flaws in e-commerce systems, but beyond the occasional negative story and some relatively minor complaints, it was not really a big deal as 2019 US e-commerce sales steadily grew to 11% of total retail sales. Ready-to-eat food delivery also'arrived' and was growing well. Then life as we knew it stopped. Food delivery services continued to flourish, even with high fees, cold food, and driver sampling of your meals. But the inherent flaws in the food delivery supply chain became glaringly obvious.

The Founder of Camile Thai Kitchen examines the ways in which 2020 has accelerated the adoption of new technology and how his business will implement such innovations in the near-future. This year has presented huge challenges for our whole sector. At Camile Thai Kitchen we have found that one silver lining has been the accelerated focus and adoption of new technologies. The companies that win with technology are those that can successfully utilise the right combination of solutions that optimise operations and improve the customer experience. For us, a combination of kitchen robotics, cloud kitchens and drones is a winning formula that makes the most sense in terms of being able to adapt to future customer demand and trends.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is impacting the world in different ways. From core industries such as manufacturing, all the way to healthcare, AI and deep learning models are changing processes and making things more efficient. And despite turbulent times, a report pinpoints that nearly half of the companies have accelerated their AI strategies, 20% doing so "significantly," betting their AI projects will have a positive impact on their organisation's resiliency, efficiency, and innovation. Yet almost half (49%) of respondents feel their company is behind in their AI journey, suggesting a critical gap exists between the strategic need and the ability to execute among business leaders and technologists. They say there is still a lack of knowledge and clarity on the applications of the technology that has been a roadblock due to which AI adoption has been slower than anticipated in the enterprise.

Happy New Year! 2019 has come and gone like Kylo Ren's reign in The Rise of Skywalker, and so it's time for my (13th!) annual prediction piece for VentureBeat. Facial recognition trials will launch in large public venues outside of China. Of course bans of the technology has already occurred, too, in cities like San Francisco and Somerville, MA. Enterprise analytics will become red hot. I predicted this space would reach a third of the value of the workflow platform space by the end of 2019.