The technology that will invade our lives in 2021

This year, the technologies we’re likely to hear about won’t be fancy gadgets like smartphones or big-screen TVs. It will be the things that we do not usually see: work software and internet products whose time has come.

Before the Coronavirus transformed our lives, every year the charts of popular technology were You may not have noticed it while shopping online, but the online experience is changing. Clicking on a website’s navigation bar to find an item has become outdated. A search bar that allows you to search for a specific product is faster. In some cases, chatting with a bot can be even more efficient.

We have experimented with chatbots for years. Facebook has offered tools for merchants to make bots that interact with customers. Retailers like Amazon have used chatbots to answer customer questions, and when bots can’t help, one person often steps in to take control.

Now that going to a physical store has be-dominated by state-of-the-art gadgets like smart speakers and curved TVs. But the pandemic has forced us to adopt useful technology that has often been ignored. Previously unhelpful or highly sophisticated applications on our devices suddenly became central tools.