It’s fair to say that no one could have predicted the year we had in 2020 considering that “murder hornets” were the least of our concerns. But with the start of 2021, we have renewed hope and optimism that this year will bring health, prosperity, and, of course, new tech! Let the prognosticating begin:

Invest in comfy pants: Research firm Forrester predicts that remote work will rise to 300% of pre-COVID levels this coming year. While certain industries wait on pins and needles to return to their old workspace, plenty of companies are finding that they really can do their work from remote settings. This trend toward “work from anywhere” models will likely result in a decline in commercial real estate but a spike in cloud-based solutions, a rise in training and skill acquisition for remote-specific skills but a decline in the need for suit pants! Also, as we remain apart, expect innovation toward any tech that helps bring people together (virtually) and builds relationships, not just brand loyalty.

But also get yourself a new outfit: Great news towards the end of last year was that there are multiple vaccines approved which appear to be incredibly effective. That means at some point this year, we’ll all be getting back out there. As the roll-out progresses, exposure notifications and contact tracing technologies will be replaced by notifications about the status of citizens’ vaccination. As states and cities have taken over determining the order of vaccinations—and changing them—communicating where and when people can get vaccinated will become more crucial. Already, the CDC has created an app called v-safe that uses text messages and web surveys to provide personalized health check-ins after you receive your shot and reminds you when it’s time for your second shot (yes, a second shot!).

Take back your data!: One result of being stuck at home and spending all our work and leisure time on-line, is that we have all exposed our personal data (knowingly and unknowingly) to the universe. While of course our passwords, credit card info, and other personal information is always at risk, now too are our preferences, political leanings, and habits. As Mark Surman of Mozilla Foundation says, “Why should Amazon get to know so much about our shopping habits? Why should Facebook get to create eerily accurate psychographic profiles of us?” Many in the industry envision 2021 as the year we “rebalance power,” taking control of our data, relying on leaders to explore data governance policies, and even entrusting our information to data trusts which operate as intermediators between us and big tech.

With so much in flux, companies are innovating like crazy so we’re all hopeful 2021 will be full of helpful, necessary, and (because we all need it) fun technology just waiting to be revealed. Happy new year!