From a digital-first culture to the collection of data to influence behaviors, the year 2021 will see a slew of digital transformation trends. Here are the top five trends for 2021:

Top five digital trends for 2021

Agile practices go deeper-IT managers and CIOs adopted agile practices in 2020 in response to the pandemic to develop applications, automate continuous integration/continuous delivery pipelines and optimize machine learning models. IT companies also reinvented their processes while they adopted the DevOps culture. In 2021, CIOs are expected to lead agile deeper within their organizations. An expected trend is that CIOs will look to partner with more business leaders for agile transformation of business operations.

Multidisciplinary agile teams, the new norm, will include coordination between operations, HR, finance, marketing, and sales to optimize business capabilities. More organizations are expected to invest in agile tools, adopt experimentation, and extend agile to data science teams.

Automation-focused designing -The pandemic underscored the need for less human intervention and more automation that will fuel the increased adoption of automation and IoT. In 2021, automation processes are slated to reach the next level of quality assurance deliverability while IoT will be leveraged to design human-machine interactions. Companies are likely to invest in developing devices with pre-fed instructions that run on remote command. These devices enable end-users to enjoy automated solutions that minimize manual intervention. The rapid adoption of a slew of automation technologies including AI-driven software, autonomous vehicles, and robotics during the pandemic is likely to extend into 2021.

More cloud -Almost every business is already using some form of cloud-based services such as storage, email, productivity tools, or other collaboration platforms. A 2020 Telstra survey showed that 93 percent of companies are accelerating the migration to cloud services. With the health crisis restricting physical movement, the adoption of cloud software and services is expected to increase in 2021.

Focus on 5G - 5G considerations are at the core of true digital transformation. According to IDC, by 2023, 5G connections are expected to expand to one billion. Across industries and sectors, businesses are looking to prepare for the upcoming 5G era. 5G becoming mainstream is the key to enhance user experience, improve IoT connectivity, and digital collaboration.

Internet of Behaviours on the rise -From wearables that monitor health to telematics monitoring, data is being gathered and harnessed on a massive scale. Companies are making use of data to personalize services or products and boost revenue. During the pandemic, IoB was utilized to check the handwashing behaviors of workers using RFID tags. A Gartner research shows that there will be an increase in technologies in 2021 that gather more data in daily life that can be leveraged to influence behaviors.