3 Tech Trends To Watch Out For In 2022

Nearly two years since the outbreak of COVID-19, followed by lockdowns and other restrictions that nearly crippled world economies, many businesses are now beginning to see some signs of recovery. As the world tries to return to normal, new business tech trends are popping up here and there.

Designed to improve the bottom line and existing business processes, these trends will drive businesses in a post-pandemic world. So it is crucial to keep up with them. 

If there’s one thing to learn from the whole ordeal of the past two years, it’s that crises accelerate innovation out of necessity. New tech trends in business enabled many organizations to not only survive the pandemic but even thrive. 

Emerging or continuing tech trends in 2022 will make businesses more agile and flexible, allowing industries to be resilient despite changing environments. This post will look at those trends that will impact businesses the most in 2022 and beyond.

Hybrid Workplace

As of December 29, 2021, 63% of the US population has been fully vaccinated. Because of that, many have become comfortable enough to return to the office. Even so, most organizations still offer options for employees to work from home, especially now as the Omicron variant of the disease creates a new scare.

With the situation far from being stable, companies will have to allow for more experimentation with the hybrid workplace working model. This model allows staff to log on from anywhere, whether at the office, their homes, or a coffee shop. Though it’s not a piece of technology per se, the hybrid workplace is an umbrella term for all the technologies that support it, such as collaboration tools like Basecamp, or Trello, smart offices, and IT asset management solutions like Teqtivity.

A more flexible working model benefits both employees and their respective organizations. There’s minimal travel, and more work can be done remotely. Onboarding can be done remotely as well. This then improves HR processes.

Expect hybrid workplace technologies to gain more prominence next year when the working model becomes standard among many organizations. Improvements will likely focus on creating more secure remote access from anywhere. 

Remote work isn’t going anytime soon. It might even stick for good. Gartner predicts that by 2022, 53% of the US workforce will be remote workers. That is to say, it would benefit organizations to invest in workplace technologies now rather than later.

Improved Remote IT Support

With the advent of hybrid working comes the need for better remote IT support systems. Working remotely is not as easy as giving laptops to your employees and providing them with a stable internet connection. Possible technical issues also need to be accounted for because a bit of mishap can completely paralyze an employee, or even entire departments, making them lose productivity for the whole day.

As technical issues are more disruptive in a hybrid workplace model, IT support systems need to evolve. Remote tech support may already be a thing before the pandemic. The only difference this time is that IT engineers themselves may also be working remotely. Organizations now require round-the-clock IT support in case the worst thing happens.

In 2022, IT Support technologies will continue to evolve as remote desktop applications like Anydesk or Teamviewer are becoming much more common on company-issued portable devices such as laptops. 

Along with remote desktop apps, IT asset tracking solutions will become more prevalent. This Smart asset management system helps prolong the life of devices and secure them from theft or tampering. Replacing hardware will also become more manageable with smart lockers like Teqube, reducing the time to reissue new devices to the staff so they can get back up and running in no time. Employees simply need to log their request in a support portal, and once approved, they can then swap out their equipment at the nearest smart locker.

Increased Automation

Workplace automation kept many companies operating and supply chains moving even at the height of the pandemic when much of the essential staff was out of the office or factory because of the lockdowns. Contrary to popular belief, automation can save or create new jobs in a post-pandemic economy.

Automation is only meant to take over menial jobs that most employees get bored of in the first place. It creates a system that gets mundane production tasks done more efficiently, which will benefit everybody. 

When organizations create processes and systems that free up their human workforce to do more complex work, this drives their businesses forward while empowering their staff to take on more meaningful roles and responsibilities.

For example, in the retail and hospital industry, automation came in the form of autonomous order fulfillment, self-service kiosks, and even AI drive-throughs. As more organizations experience the improved efficiency and morale boost of their staff, expect a rise in the sense of urgency to invest in new automated systems in 2022. 

Conclusion

Organizations have a lot to focus on in the coming year. The three points listed in this article will be the key drivers of technology trends in 2022. They will be critical to the success of organizations not just for the next year but beyond. 

As the pandemic continues to push technical advancements in response to new behaviors from consumers, companies should acquaint themselves with these recent tech trends which will impact businesses in 2022.