The world has been caught grossly unprepared to meet the extraordinary challenges posed by the Covid-19 outbreak. The extreme ramifications of the global crisis have already begun to unfold. Businesses across the world are severely impacted and the global economy is heading towards what's said to be the worst global recession since World War II. Over the last few years, enterprises have been leveraging data science, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to draw meaningful insights and make informed decisions. In the light of the current pandemic, we are forced to wonder if things could have been any different.

The future is coming faster in the banking industry, but while robots are about to take some of the jobs of the manually skilled, AI programs and FinTech disruptors are coming for the brightest and most creative minds. Bottom line: The human factor is here to stay. The current crisis has intensified several existing megatrends in finance, including digital transformation and sustainability. Lockdowns imposed by authorities around the world have changed consumers' habits, providing a big boost to FinTech players everywhere. Even in countries that have partially reopened, platforms which used to be the daily options of millennials for shopping or making payments – such as e-commerce, digital payments, and mobile banking apps – have become the popular choice of the older generation's customers.

If we look back on the past five years, we would find many breath-taking tech advancements. Smart cities, micro-drones, Internet of Things, connected logistics, artificial intelligence, etc. have put us on a platform where pride comes naturally. We can talk about the coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns all we want. However, we shouldn't forget one thing. Technology has empowered us with numerous advantages to fight this crisis.

For some organizations, AI tools may have been perceived as "nice-to-have" technologies prior to 2020. In a 2019 IBM/Morning Consult survey of businesses, 22% of respondents worldwide reported they are not currently using or exploring the use of AI. But in a future characterized by uncertainty, only organizations that embrace the most advanced AI tools will be able to weather future storms. The COVID-19 pandemic remains an immediate threat, but all kinds of organizations are looking ahead to build resilient systems that can better withstand future pandemics, as well as natural disasters, cyberthreats, and other destabilizing scenarios. The current crisis is an opportunity to examine the performance of the technological systems that we use to manage the various aspects of human existence.

The coronavirus crisis has significantly altered our everyday lives. Behavioral trends that were already underway, including the use of e-commerce, telemedicine, remote learning, video communication, at-home entertainment or exercise, and food delivery, have seen significant acceleration. Consumer shifts that would have otherwise taken years have been compressed into short weeks. While some of the behaviors will revert to pre-crisis patterns, many will stick with us permanently. For the most part, these rapid changes have been enabled by existing Web and Mobile solutions.

Are you ready for 2021's opportunities? Are you ready for the new business models that will emerge once the COVID-19 coronavirus is behind us? What strategic technology moves will your organization make today to invest in the innovation to bring your enterprise out of the current crisis, stronger and better? CTOs and other senior technology leaders should now be focusing on these key questions as we enter the second half of 2020. Sure, it was critically important to pivot instantly to enable working from home in the first half of this year.

Last week, mayors representing over 750 million people, across the world's leading cities, published a statement of principles, warning against a return to "business as usual" as the world recovers from COVID-19. This advice is as relevant for enterprises as it is for society as a whole. COVID-19 has exposed a lack of resilience, severely impacting operational continuity. Indeed, Eurozone business activity fell to an all-time low in April. With the pandemic impacting every part of society, there are human considerations to every decision we make. While clearly the most important factor, public health professionals are already doing a great job of covering this issue.

With an unavoidable recession in the cards, what can we expect in the coming months? How quickly can markets, societies and small businesses recover? The past decade was successful overall, showcasing phenomenal four-times S&P growth and close to seven-times Nasdaq growth. After crashing in March 2009, both rose in the face of adversity by mid-February 2020. But that all changed by March 2020.

Humans may sometimes regard robots with apprehension or resentment over the increasing automation of labor, but the coronavirus pandemic is showing how the two can work together in new ways that might save lives during a crisis. Around the globe, robots and other technologies, like drones and telehealth devices, are being used in a variety of settings and capacities to assist in the COVID-19 response since there is a level of elevated risk for human workers. Automated devices have delivered meals to quarantined travelers in a Chinese hotel; enforced curfews in Tunisia; scanned visitors for fevers entering a South Korean hospital; monitored patients in a hard-hit Italian city; and tracked social distancing compliance from the skies in a number of cities around the world, including Elizabeth, New Jersey. Many of the technologies were available commercially prior to the coronavirus outbreak, said Texas A&M University professor Robin Murphy, who studies how robots can be deployed during disasters. But now, "they are being used 24/7 and adapted to fit the needs of those using them," Murphy added.

When we came out of the financial crisis of 2008, cloud computing kicked into high gear and started to become a pervasive, transformational technology. The current COVID-19 crisis could provide a similar inflection point for AI applications. While the implications of AI continue to be debated on the world stage, the rapid onset of a global health crisis and concomitant recession will accelerate its impact. Times of crisis bring rapid change. Efforts to harness AI technologies to discover new drugs – either vaccine or treatment – have kicked into hyperdrive.