The corona outbreak has illustrated just how important technology is in our lives. Whether it’s allowing you to work from home, stay in touch with loved ones that you can’t be with, or keeping you fit when you can’t make it to a gym – technology is so essential to the human experience – now more than ever.
CFC receive a variety of tech risks from start-ups to SMEs, but there’s certainly been an influx as we all grapple with life in lockdown.
Here are some of the tech risks we are seeing which seem to have particular relevance in a COVID era:
Checkout-less shopping
Maintaining social distancing while in your local supermarket is a tough call at the moment, but some retailers are using artificial intelligence to operate stores without checkouts, so there’s no more queuing and no unnecessary groups of people! With onsite cameras, cloud services and sensor technology, all you need to do is download the app, scan in, grab those essentials and walk out!
Digital events for seniors
Borne out of the awareness that isolation can be especially tough for seniors who may already live a relatively solitary life, this app hosts digital events for elderly people. The app is helping to combat the loneliness epidemic with book clubs, regular religious and worship events and yoga – the perfect way for the elderly to stay connected during social distancing.
Social gaming
What better time to become a gamer?! eSports is becoming the fastest growing form of entertainment in the world, with over 550M viewers expected industry-wide by 2021! This games developer is creating titles across a multitude of platforms including augmented reality, virtual reality, consoles, mobile, PCs, and interactive television.
Internet discovery platform
A new way to share content with friends and strangers - this platform finds the internet’s hidden gems using in-depth machine learning. Move over annoying algorithms that forever show you dog photos after that one accidental click! The platform recommends content (for example recipes, decorating, astrology, fitness) that the user may like due to their chosen interests, it also allows the user to save and share their favourite finds for others to discover. Browse corners of the internet the usual social platforms skip over – or let other users do the work for you!
Treasure hunt
This business is diversifying its proposition for 2020’s stay home world. Usually this tech company offers an augmented reality application that enables the user to go on treasure hunts around public spaces. With public engagement on hold, they’re providing fun adventures to play among family and friends in the form of escape rooms. Users are tasked with finding hidden codes, perform fun tasks and solve riddles. This should keep the kids busy for a little while!
Fitness from home
The gym may be closed, but no one wants to walk out of lockdown twice the human they walked in! Now is the perfect time to try some new fitness regimes. This app is packed full of instructional videos for yoga, HIIT, barre and quick 7-minute fitness work outs. Let’s get physical!
Sports engagement for kids
Using the app, kids can learn, practice and develop new sports skills. The app is designed to inspire youth with a virtual coaching and engagement platform. App users can also upload videos of themselves performing the skills for other children to learn from.
We will see some amazing new technology emerge as a consequence of the coronavirus era, as technology continues to respond to our changing lives. As we have done for the past 20 years, we’re here to help these start-ups change the world by providing peace of mind with insurance built for their business.
