Covid-19 has accelerated digital adoption in daily life: FedEx data

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated digitalisation in daily life in Indian cities, an unreleased data from a FedEx Express’ countrywide study released last year has revealed. This rapid digital transformation encompassed a diverse spectrum from healthcare to manufacturing to logistics.

In October last year, the American logistics giant had come out with its India-wide study on the rise of digitalisation in India, called 'The Future is Now.' However, some data points from that study were held back. Business Today has exclusively accessed that data.

According to this data, nearly 70 per cent of respondents admitted to having significantly altered their lifestyles in anticipation of a technology-driven future. More than half, or 52 per cent, believed that futuristic technologies were either already a part of their lives or were quietly becoming a part of their lives.

Interestingly, 85 per cent said that if they were living in a city deemed as futuristic, they would also expect to avail of tech-enabled health services. More than two-thirds, or 68 per cent of the respondents, considered tech-enabled logistics important in a futuristic world, with 34 per cent claiming that it would form the backbone of such an ecosystem.

A significant portion, or 79 per cent of respondents, concluded that nations like India were prioritising technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain as part of their push into a futuristic world, it said. The rollout of such technology-enabled solutions was boosting unparalleled opportunities and driving growth across sectors to create cities of tomorrow.

The findings were derived from field research conducted through face-to-face and telephonic interviews with 4,210 respondents in 18 Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities. Out of these 18 cities, nine were Tier 1 cities, including Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune and Secunderabad. The other nine were Tier-2 cities, which included Coimbatore, Dehradun, Gurugram, Jaipur, Kochi, Lucknow, Surat, Udaipur and Varanasi. Respondents included a representative sample of people from the above cities aged between 18-60 years.

Similar research conducted in the past couple of years by leading global advisories has also pointed to digitalisation picking up pace in India. A 2019 McKinsey study had determined that the country had registered the second-fastest growth globally in digital adoption, with both the public and private sectors driving it. A 2020 PwC survey affirmed that optimism on AI had increased significantly from 72 per cent to 92 per cent, with 45 per cent of Indian organisations increasingly using the technology in a post-coronavirus world.

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