Rupa Dash - Futurist

“It will bring people much closer and we will see people having much closer and valuable intimate relationships on virtual platforms."

Brian Solis - Enterprise Industry analyst

“One thing I’m sure of: we’re not going back to business as usual. We need new perspective to see problems and opportunities in a new light. What’s happening now is a tremendous exposure to weaknesses in digital transformation and innovation initiatives. Beyond infrastructure modernization, organizations need to invest in systems and operations that learn from shifts in behavior, preferences and aspirations."

Victoria Buchanan - Futures analyst at The Future Laboratory

“We are realising the power of collective action. Perhaps in this chaos there is a window of opportunity that we can seize."

Glen Hiemstra - Futurist

“It’s hard to say what the world is going to look like in six months because we know so little about what the world is going to look like in one month. So, think of this as less about predicting certainties and more about forecasting possibilities."

Lisa Kay Solomon - Designer in Residence at Stanford d. School. Chair, Transformational Practices, Singularity University. Co-Author, Moments of Impact & Design A Better Business

“While we don’t — and can’t — know what the future will bring, what is clear is that we must learn how to get comfortable operating in constant, if not extreme, ambiguity while also navigating an acute and frightening crisis. We need to build and flex new skills that will not only help us get through this moment, but will also serve us well for shaping the future yet to come."

Thomas Frey - Futurist

“I think we’re on the verge of reinventing society in so many ways. We’re going to have more job shifts. People changing work. Because suddenly we’re taking a pause. When they think about it, they’re going to say 'I really don’t want to go back to that job. I think I’ll do something else.

Whether its quantum computing, data analytics, artificial intelligence... We're going to raise the skill level of many people in the world during this time.

With so many changes to so many industries at once, all hell breaks loose. It's total chaos. It messes with the economies."

Blake Morgan - Author of The Customer of the Future.

“People usually say they want a human element to their interactions but Covid-19 has changed that.

[Covid-19] is going to change consumer preference and really open up new opportunities for automation.

Customers now care more about their safety and the safety and health of workers.

Moves towards automation can keep them all healthier and customers will reward companies that do this."

Gerd Leonhard - Futurist

“Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable."

Geraldine Wharry - Futurist, designer and educator

“Many people are going to go after their dreams now…of course there will be a segment of the population that still wants to consume and shop. After not being able to shop in stores for months, some will miss it and others will realize they really don’t need it. This is going to make us realize what is essential.

In the future, people may want instant feedback about their temperatures. We’ve seen that with [smart] watches. Haptic feedback and data is being woven into garments so that your heart rate and other biometric data is fed back. Those things were used for yoga and sports. They could have amazing benefits for avoiding pandemics, if all of a sudden you realize that you have a fever."

Adrian Saville - CEO of Cannon Asset Managers

“Closet dictators will aim to exploit the crisis to blame incumbent governments for the fall-out. In this sense, strong-man government may make a comeback, and the rights of citizens may be eroded while the legacy of the crisis lingers.

With drastic isolation, a new digital elite may emerge which has had unlimited internet access. During this time, the digital elite will have maintained and grown their professional networks, reinvented their supply chains, managed their finances and educated themselves and their families. All while the data-disadvantaged have languished in intensified exclusion."

Faith Popcorn - Futurist, author, founder and CEO - BrainReserve

“I think there is going to be much more use of online education. Working from home - not going to an office - is going to be much more acceptable. So I think that's going to stay. Alcohol sales - home delivery of alcohol is here and it's gone through the roof. Also marijuana sales here have gone up.

I think retail is going to have more than a little bump. Because people are so excited to walk into a store and touch something, see other people, smell some soap."

Neil Irwin - Senior economics correspondent for The New York Times

“But one lesson of these episodes of economic tumult is that those surprising ripple effects tend to result from longstanding unaddressed frailties. Crises have a way of bringing to the fore issues that are easy to ignore in good times."

Sir Martin Rees - British astronomer

“The optimistic scenario is that this will be a 'one-off' event from which we'll recover, having learnt at least two lessons. First, we shouldn't depend on non-resilient, long supply chains. We need to invest in spare capacity, in people and equipment, to cope with such events," which, Rees predicts, are unlikely but not necessarily improbable."

Jamie Metzl - Technology futurist

“The way I describe this is the future is crashing into the present. Things that may have taken 10 or 20 year to arrive will now arrive in just months.

What we're experiencing is just a fundamental shift of so many aspects of our lives. And the world post-crisis is in many ways going to be fundamentally different from what it looked like going in.

The nature of our economies is going to shift. That doesn't mean that our economies are going to shut down, but there are lots of industries that will transition.

Now is the time when you should be thinking about your next pivot, not just hankering for this old world that is in many ways already gone.

We all need to be part of the next world that we would like to inhabit and then work together to work that world."

Marc Palatucci - Futurist at Future Today Institute

“There will likely be an initial hesitance to return to high-traffic retail establishments, which may bode well for smaller, more boutique-style shops in the short term. Also, any transaction that beforehand might have involved human contact will likely be adjusted to avoid it, as a matter of caution.

As the memory of this pandemic fades, we will revert to our previous habits sooner than one might think.

Great creativity often arises from hardship or conflict, but that’s rarely a consolation when you’re experiencing that adversity. That said, we can always look at challenges as opportunities as well."

Tobias Gantner - CEO at HealthCare Futurists

“We need to say goodbye to our concepts of data security. Look at the development of acoustic biomarkers where, from voice snippets, you can detect a predisposition for Parkinson's or depression. Data security is something for healthy people. If you are at risk, the odds change rapidly, you become in favor of sharing or donating data."

Douglas Stephens - Futurist

“People will mark the fact that they are alive and healthy. Maybe they’ll realize it’s time to get to the beach. Maybe get that Mercedes they always wanted. I have a feeling that in the aftermath of COVID-19, once the dust settles, we could see a period of rampant consumerism.

The operative question is whether the trauma of this whole outbreak and what people have to go through are likely to change consumer behavior in the long term. It’s about the degree to which consumers who may not have tried alternatives to their normal shopping behavior, who perhaps they never ordered groceries or apparel online, or never tried ordering to get a meal delivered, try all of this. All of a sudden, these are not just alternatives. In some cases, they’re the only means of obtaining those products and services.

We have now billions of people working from home and many companies that have made investments that allow people to work from home. How many in the aftermath say, ‘this works. We don’t need all these office towers and commercial space.’ There is a massive money savings opportunity. Take any bank or insurance company, as examples. They are going to be evaluating what would it look like if most of our workforce was virtual. Imagine the savings on utilities, maintenance, rent. And how much does that change the way we dress, and the need to buy clothing for business meetings."

Tom Cheesewright - Future-gazing Brit

“Smart companies will realise that human beings aren't robots and let us work in more productive ways.

That means mapping the working day to your body clock so you get enough sleep. Working in bursts not long stretches.

And breaking it up with some exercise."

Mike Lydon - Principal at the urban planning and design firm Street Plans

“Things won’t be the same as they were in January of this year. There’s an opportunity to put that new order in place on our streets, and to make that more sustainable. I think the only way to help people not opt into choosing cars as a personal way to get around is to create the infrastructure that is desirable. And so short of doing that, people are going to turn to other choices."