12 Tech Trends

To Watch Closely
In 2021 2021
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Table of Contents

Intro 4

1. Chief prepper officer: Resilience will become a more 5

prominent corporate function as anxious companies steel
themselves against unprecedented external disruptions.

2. The quantum time bomb: As powerful quantum computers 9

emerge, businesses will be forced to secure data faster than
these computers can decrypt it.

3. Simulating empathy: Businesses will prioritize building AI 12

technologies that can interpret and respond to human
emotions as they look to connect with consumers.

4. Trip treatment: Technology will help usher psychedelic 19

medicines into the mainstream.

5. The rise of exclusivity: Exclusivity networks will become 22

the future of social media.

6. Society-as-a-service: Silicon Valley types will move beyond 27

dreams like smart cities to the literal creation of communities
built from the ground up.

7. The metaverse mall: Shared virtual spaces will redefine how 31

we shop and interact with people and businesses.

8. Clipping crypto: Crypto rewards will reshape how brands, 35

loyalty programs, and payments companies offer cash back.

9. Repurposing physical space: From fulfillment centers to 39

mall health clinics to vertical farms, reimagining spaces
will create an unprecedented opportunity.

10. Hotelization of the office: As office culture returns, spaces 44

will be less populated and personal, and the aesthetic will
shift away from the collaborative “campus” model.

11. Ambient wellness: The continued convergence of health 47

and self-care will unbundle the spa and bring it into homes,
shops, and beyond.

12. Hospital-at-home: To fill the gaps in telehealth, expect more 52

healthcare services in the home, from house calls to remote
patient monitoring to at-home lab testing.

12 Tech Trends To Watch Closely In 2021

3
Intro

“Unprecedented”; “extraordinary”; “once-in-a-lifetime.” There’s no

overstating the case for how 2020 has scrambled our lives and
inflated the role of technology. It has moved front and center in almost
every adaptation we’ve made to a year of living through a pandemic.

From resilience in the C-suite to bringing the hospital to the home,

technology in 2021 will draft off the accelerated trends brought
about by social distancing measures and stay-at-home orders.
We’ll see wellness imbued in building design as well as more
immersive — and branded — retail experiences in a new virtual
“metaverse” dimension.

There are also technology trends on the immediate horizon

that have bubbled up largely outside of the extraordinary 2020
experience. AI is now table stakes for companies, and the new
race will be to imbue these algorithms with emotional data that
differentiates and improves the customer experience. Crypto is
officially mainstream (perhaps helped along by a year of economic
uncertainty and bored, home-bound crypto enthusiasts), so much
so that we see payments companies embracing bitcoin as the new
rewards points currency.

Exclusivity and futuristic tech havens built from the ground up

are also taking off, while psychedelic medicine could this year be
where medical cannabis was less than a decade ago.

In 2021, much will depend on the pace of vaccination and how

quickly or slowly we find our way out of the pandemic. As we do,
technology’s centrality across our behaviors is more assured than
ever before. And while some individuals may embrace a post-
pandemic luddite retreat, for organizations, 2021 will likely be a
year of technological refinement and retooling, as lessons learned
on the fly inform a more thoughtful, less frantic embrace of the
technology trends reshaping industries.

12 Tech Trends To Watch Closely In 2021

4
1. Chief prepper officer

Resilience will become a more prominent corporate function as

anxious companies steel themselves against unprecedented
external disruptions.

Persistent threats like climate change, cyber warfare, and much

more could turn the world upside down — again. Companies
shaken by the pandemic will start prioritizing resilience and turn
to emerging tech as they look to onshore operations, build robust
supply chains, and ready themselves for the next big crisis.

Industry leaders like Bill Gates warned for years that a severe
pandemic was coming, but nobody knew when it would happen
and, as such, many businesses were caught off guard and had to
scramble to flesh out remote work strategies, diversify suppliers,
and build e-commerce alternatives to brick-and-mortar stores.

But pandemics are far from the only large-scale threat the world
will have to contend with.

The prospects include:

• Extreme weather increasing in severity and frequency due to

climate change.

• Cyberattacks crippling electricity grids or other infrastructure.

• Major volcanic eruptions blocking out the sky and grounding

flights.

Depending on the scale, any one of these events, and many more,
could jolt the global economy overnight.

12 Tech Trends To Watch Closely In 2021

5
Given this deluge of risks, and shaken by the colossal ongoing
ramifications of Covid-19, more corporations are becoming
preppers. The term “resilience” was mentioned a record number
of times on earnings calls last year as execs discussed responses
to the pandemic, and trends like “digital transformation” and
“onshoring” — often seen as ways to help counter volatility — have
taken on new urgency.

One approach companies are taking is rethinking supply chains,

either through bringing operations closer to home or broadening
geographic distribution to limit reliance on a single country. Apple
has made moves to make more of its devices in Vietnam, while
Foxconn, one of its biggest suppliers, announced last year it would
invest $1B to expand in India to help it diversify away from its
China-based factories affected by trade sanctions and coronavirus
lockdowns.

Many businesses are also turning to tech like AI to gain a better

understanding of their operations, predict demand fluctuations,
and respond more quickly to changing circumstances.

12 Tech Trends To Watch Closely In 2021

6
Startups in the space are gaining traction. Supply chain visibility
company project44, for instance, raised a $100M mega-round at
the end of 2020. Meanwhile, RELEX Solutions, a CB Insights Retail
Tech 100 winner, has raised $224M in total disclosed funding
for its AI-driven platform for demand forecasting and inventory
management.

Source: RELEX Solutions

Some food companies are thinking about supply chain resilience

from a different angle by turning to alternative proteins after being
bruised when Covid-19 upended livestock value chains. Compared
to rearing animals, alternative protein supply chains can be shorter
and established closer to densely populated cities where a lot of
food is consumed.

Energy production is another area where some corporates are

looking to protect factories and value chains from uncertainty.
Manufacturing sites that run off locally installed renewables, like
Tesla’s solar-powered “gigafactories,” needn’t worry quite as much
about a cyber attack or hurricane bringing down an electrical grid
— though a persistent ash cloud from a volcano could cause a
few problems.

12 Tech Trends To Watch Closely In 2021

7
Source: Tesla

Diversity of options, with a splash of redundancy, will be essential

to riding out the worst storms. Aspiring chief prepper officers
might want to keep that old landline installed.

12 Tech Trends To Watch Closely In 2021

8
2. The quantum time bomb

As powerful quantum computers emerge, businesses will be forced

to secure data faster than these computers can decrypt it.

Quantum computers are becoming exponentially more powerful

and more widely available.

In 2019, Google became the first quantum computer maker

to achieve “quantum supremacy,” which refers to running a
calculation on a quantum computer dramatically faster than any
conventional computer could ever manage. The tech giant said it
solved a problem in just a few minutes that would take a classical
supercomputer 10,000 years to complete. Just over a year later, a
team in China claimed to also have achieved quantum supremacy,
this time completing a computation in 200 seconds that would
otherwise take about 2.5B years — 100T times faster.

More broadly, equity deals to quantum computing startups set a

new record of 37 rounds last year, an annual increase of 42%, as the
number of players in the space grows.

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9
Though quantum computers could soon transform industries like
healthcare, finance, and logistics, the industry’s rising momentum
is creating an arms race to secure data faster than quantum
computers can decrypt it.

This is because a powerful enough quantum computer could

quickly overcome common internet encryption protocols like RSA,
which use prime factors of large numbers to protect online data.

This could cause problems on a scale far beyond even today’s slew
of high-profile data breaches. A hacker with a decent quantum
computer could access sensitive materials like emails, e-commerce
payments, medical records, and more as they are shuttled around
the web. Even some blockchain networks — which are seen as
relatively secure and are quickly being adopted by enterprises —
could eventually face serious challenges to the integrity of their
records.

In response, new encryption methods to counter quantum

computers are starting to emerge — including some being
developed by major tech players like IBM and Microsoft. Referred
to collectively as “post-quantum cryptography,” these techniques
tend to be built around problems that quantum computers aren’t
expected to have many advantages in solving.

The US-based National Institute of Standards and Technology

(NIST) is planning to recommend post-quantum cryptography
standards next year to help organizations adapt, a much-
anticipated move that will fuel implementation and help support
interoperability. In the meantime, the UK government’s National
Cyber Security Centre recently recommended that enterprises start
planning for post-quantum cryptography by identifying systems
to prioritize for a transition, though warned against anxious
companies rushing to adopt non-standardized approaches — a
potentially tempting option for industries like finance which have a
lot of money riding on the security of their online transactions.

12 Tech Trends To Watch Closely In 2021

10
Some are also spying an opportunity. Startups like ISARA, which
has raised $27M in total disclosed funding, and University of Oxford
spinout PQShield, which raised $7M in seed funding in July 2020,
are among the growing number of companies competing to help
businesses move to post-quantum cryptography.

Source: ISARA

Many industry observers think that today’s encryption will be

good enough for a decade or more, but others fear an unforeseen
breakthrough could significantly cut into that timeline. In any
event, the complexity of updating IT infrastructure is a further
incentive to move quickly and update to a new encryption protocol
that will soon be necessary.

The stakes of a quantum computer undermining many of today’s

commonly used encryption standards are high — countless
everyday e-commerce transactions and even sensitive government
communications could be vulnerable — and the damage could
be much more widespread than today’s headline-grabbing data
breaches. Imagine millions of shops, hospitals, and banks around the
world that could no longer ensure the privacy of their online systems.

12 Tech Trends To Watch Closely In 2021

11
3. Simulating empathy

Businesses will prioritize building AI technologies that can

interpret and respond to human emotions as they look to connect
with consumers.

Over the last decade, artificial intelligence has gone from buzzword
to a must-have business competence. From retail to healthcare
to financial services, AI is penetrating nearly every industry, with
advances in deep learning, computer vision, and more paving the way.

AI, though, has largely been challenged when it comes to

recognizing and reacting to human emotion. In fact, the AI Now
Institute at New York University called for a ban on the use of
emotion recognition tech “in important decisions that impact
people’s lives and access to opportunities” in its 2019 report.

But the attempt to use AI to recognize and respond to emotion,

or emotion AI, isn’t a new concept — and in 2021, as political and
social pressures continue to push tech companies to account for
a wider range of human experiences, emotion AI will become an
increasing priority.

The idea is largely associated with American scholar and inventor

Rosalind Picard and her early research on the topic — also known
as affective computing, or “computing that relates to, arises from,
or deliberately influences emotions.” Today, the $87B global
market for affective computing has far-reaching potential, and
interest in the space has been gradually building.

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12
Machines employing emotional artificial intelligence attempt
to interpret human emotion from text, voice patterns, facial
expressions, and other non-verbal cues — and in many cases,
simulate those emotions in response. In tapping into unspoken
behaviors and reactions, businesses can leverage this “emotional
data” to increase their gains and better cater to customers.

Source: Accenture

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13
Emotion AI company Affectiva, for example, has found that
advertisers are becoming increasingly effective at drawing out
emotional responses from consumers:

“From our work with 70% of the world’s largest

advertisers and 28% of the Fortune Global
500 companies, we’ve found that emotionally
resonant ads improve sales results.”
— GRAHAM PAGE, GLOBAL MANAGING DIRECTOR OF MEDIA
ANALYTICS AT AFFECTIVA

The tech could also change how companies interact with customers.
Companies like Behavioral Signals and Cogito use emotion AI to
analyze elements of speech, like tone and vocal emphasis, to best
match service agents and customers across industries.

Source: Cogito

12 Tech Trends To Watch Closely In 2021

14
Widespread adoption of the tech could also feed into industries
like medicine.

For example, researchers are using deep learning techniques to

capture facial expressions of pain to help detect discomfort, an
especially useful approach for when patients cannot verbally
communicate. Others are leveraging AI emotion detection software
to determine levels of joy or negative emotion of facial palsy
patients, pre- and post-surgery.

In another example, Amazon’s health and wellness tracker

Halo integrates voice analysis and machine learning to analyze
how positive or energetic users sound based on emotions like
happiness, sadness, or excitement in their voice.

While still in the early stages of development, emotion AI tech for

the automotive industry also has tremendous upside potential.
Computer vision is already being leveraged for driver monitoring,
where systems are being built to help identify driver fatigue, for
example. Now, some automakers’ increased priority on assessing
emotion, from stress to anger, could add another layer of insight to
improve road safety and occupant comfort.

Hyundai, for example, is developing Emotion Adaptive Vehicle

Control (EAVC) technology in partnership with MIT that can
optimize the environment of a vehicle based on passengers’
emotional states. The automaker recently unveiled a concept car
designed to transport children in hospitals that uses AI-based
tech to monitor facial expressions, heart rate, and respiratory rate,
along with other factors such as car acceleration, to adjust vehicle
systems like lighting, climate, and music.

12 Tech Trends To Watch Closely In 2021

15
Source: Hyundai

Affectiva has also been working on an in-cabin sensing solution,

called Automotive AI, since 2018. The company has partnered with
car manufacturers like BMW and Porsche, and it has numerous
patent grants related to the assessment of emotion. Its most
recently granted patent, titled “Image analysis for emotional metric
evaluation,” looks to analyze “emotional context” from facial images
— and could see applications across the in-vehicle experience.

Source: USPTO

12 Tech Trends To Watch Closely In 2021

16
Emotion AI has the potential to change the way we operate across
industries. Though as with any AI, privacy and transparency
concerns, as well as the risk of bias and ethical considerations, play
a huge factor in its development.

For example, Amazon’s AI-powered recruiting tool reportedly

penalized resumes that included the word “women’s.” Google’s
algorithm for detecting hate speech on social media was found to
disproportionately flag Black users’ tweets before it was corrected.
The room for error when it comes to something as subjective as
one’s emotional state is large.

But emotion AI — if used with caution — could benefit both

businesses and consumers alike.

Recently, IBM (in partnership with Airbus and the German

Aerospace Center) relaunched an “AI-powered astronaut assistant”
named CIMON. Beyond scientific assistance, CIMON is expected
to act as an “empathetic companion” while in space — which could
lead to outsized mental health benefits for astronauts who are on
already stressful, and potentially lonely, missions.

Source: IBM

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Moving forward, companies developing emotion AI tech will need
to navigate the complexities of handling emotional data (especially
when accounting for multiple reactions at once, like in a car full
of passengers, for example) — which is far more sensitive and
intangible than other forms of personal data — to account for
cultural differences in emotional expression and the potential for
bias in their algorithms.

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4. Trip treatment

Technology will help usher psychedelic medicines into the

mainstream.

The so-called “psychedelic renaissance” is gaining momentum

across the US, as regulators, investors, and the public increasingly
embrace psychedelic medicines as a promising treatment tool for
patients who haven’t had success with traditional drugs.

In November 2020, Washington DC decriminalized psychedelics, while

Oregon became the first US state to legalize psilocybin, the active
compound in “magic mushrooms,” for use in supervised therapies.

Clinical trials studying the health effects of psychedelics and

hallucinogens are also picking up, with 32 trials beginning in 2020
alone — a new annual record. In recent years, the FDA has given
a nod to the space by granting “breakthrough therapy” status to
MDMA and psilocybin for the treatment of PTSD and treatment-
resistant depression, respectively.

In 2021, tech companies and pharma incumbents will take

advantage of the shift in opinion and home in on bringing these
medicines to market.

These players face an uphill battle. Psychedelics carry decades-old

stigma and are generally classified as schedule 1 or 2 substances.
Even in Oregon, the legalization of psychedelic mushrooms doesn’t
translate to immediate opportunity — the law merely stipulates a
2-year period for a regulatory framework to be defined.

Nevertheless, investors are flooding into the space. 2020

saw landmark VC funding going to private tech companies in
psychedelic medicines, with deals increasing 4x year-over-year
(YoY) and equity funding up nearly 400% to reach $448M.

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As these medicines go to market, technology will be critical in
facilitating end-to-end care outside of supervised therapies.

Reacting to Covid-19, federal agencies announced relaxed

guidelines to help patients access mental healthcare remotely.
For example, the FDA temporarily waived requirements for digital
therapeutics — software solutions that can help augment or replace
traditional therapies — being used to treat psychiatric disorders,
effectively allowing developers to market eligible devices without
receiving clearance first.

In response, companies like ATAI Life Sciences and Mind Cure

Health have introduced new digital therapeutics devoted to
psychedelic medicine research and delivery. These aim to make
treatment accessible to a wider range of patients by centralizing
remote monitoring and counseling in user-friendly platforms.
Health providers and tech developers can also use these portals to
access critical patient data outside of supervised therapies in order
to adjust treatment in real time.

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Researchers are also tapping tech companies to accelerate
research in the field. Life sciences company Cybin, for one, recently
partnered with neuroimaging tech provider Kernel to measure
brain activity during psychedelic experiences. Meanwhile, Revive
Therapeutics and PharmaTher are collaborating to use AI to
discover novel uses for psychedelic compounds.

As psychedelic medicines break into the mainstream, expect big

pharma to get involved, especially in instances where psychedelic
medicines stand to replace already commercialized drugs like anti-
depressants. Johnson & Johnson, for one, has made moves here
by commercializing a ketamine-derived nasal spray for treatment-
resistant depression. There has been a steady stream of patents
in recent years staking out intellectual property (IP) in this space.

Expect more M&A here as a way to bring technology solutions in

house. In January 2021, for instance, biotech company Entheon
Biomedical acquired HaluGen, which offers a genetic pre-screening
test to predict how patients will respond to psychedelic treatments.

12 Tech Trends To Watch Closely In 2021

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5. The rise of exclusivity

Exclusivity networks will become the future of social media.

Exclusivity drove Facebook’s early viral growth, with access open

only to students at certain elite colleges. Later, early experiments
in creating VIP tech-enabled communities, such as Ello, flared and
failed.

Now, exclusivity seems to be making a comeback and is poised

to be central to the next wave of social networks. Already we have
seen Discord chats and other private venues flourish, and partially
private apps like Clubhouse are gaining popularity. But this is just
the beginning.

Source: Discord

In 2021, watch for social networks building value through the

quality and strength of their connections — as well as through
the appeal of exclusivity — rather than the network effects of
scale. Entrepreneurs could use everything from crypto tokens
to subscription tech to build community-based businesses that
deploy algorithms and marketing tech to vet entrants. The idea is
less to get people to join and more to keep people out.

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Clubhouse, for example, is invite-only. The app lets users chat
in audio-based “rooms” that typically have a theme. Members
can join book club discussions, debate politics, host rap battles,
and much more — but Clubhouse’s buzz has come from the
members themselves.

Philanthropist Felicia Horowitz hosts Saturday night “dinner

parties” on the app. The parties often bring in over 100 people,
including big names like CNN host Van Jones, Dallas Cowboys
linebacker Jaylon Smith, and even Oprah Winfrey. Talks hosted on
the platform are not recorded, which adds to the appeal. Meltem
Demirors, an executive at CoinShares and a Clubhouse member,
says, “It’s all ephemeral. It creates this cool urgency.”

Source: Social Media Examiner

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The platform had around 600,000 registered users as of December
2020, which feels like an intimate dinner party compared to
Facebook’s 2.74B monthly active users. Though Clubhouse is still
in beta, its celebrity-filled tech roster has been enough to build up
hype — and draw in a $100M investment from Andreessen Horowitz
at a $1B valuation in January 2021.

But Clubhouse is far from the first social media network to make
a name for itself by limiting membership. The invitation-only
ASMALLWORLD, a network for elite travelers, launched in 2004
and has been called a “MySpace for millionaires.” Today, the site’s
60,000+ jet-setting members can connect with each other and
find luxury hotels, restaurants, and events wherever they are in
the world, depending on their membership tier — which can cost
anywhere from $105 to $27,000 a year.

In 2021 and beyond, privacy will become a bigger focus for

exclusive social networks. Clubhouse has run into issues with
conversations being recorded by users and leaked onto other
platforms. Tech analyst and Clubhouse user Jeremiah Owyang told
the Wall Street Journal, “100%, they [users] should expect it could
become public, just as you would any other social channel.” As
more invite-only networks pop up, privacy and keeping content just
between members could become a key differentiator.

Privacy and exclusivity, of course, come with a cost:

• Users who want to post photos on photo-sharing app Rich

Kids have to pay around $1,070 per month.

• The Marque, a professional networking app for the wealthy,

costs about $1,363 per year.

As privacy becomes more important, these membership fees could

increase to ensure that what’s said in the club stays in the club.

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The appeal of exclusivity extends to the dating world, too.
The League, for example, is an invite-only dating app that targets
successful professionals with degrees from prestigious universities.

Source: The League

Raya operates in a similar way, though its demographic is “people

in creative industries,” or celebrities. The app has been referred to
as “Illuminati Tinder.” Hopeful users must fill out an application,
which is “assessed based on algorithmic values and input from
hundreds of committee members throughout the world.” As
exclusivity becomes more popular, watch for the admission
processes into these elite networks becoming more rigorous — or
at least more expensive.

Raya launched in 2015 and has kept a low profile since. As more
elite social networks pop up, limiting media attention will be
key in solidifying their exclusive reputations. Staying out of the
mainstream and prioritizing privacy will help these apps attract and
build a reputation.

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Another more difficult challenge for these platforms is the presence
of hate speech and extremist groups. Clubhouse, for example,
has received criticism for alleged hate groups organizing on the
app. But there are also issues of prejudice and abuse under the
disguise of “devil’s advocate” discussions. This kind of content is
more difficult to flag, and because of its potential to be promoted
by powerful users on the app, it is more dangerous. Exclusive
networks will need to figure out ways to effectively moderate this
kind of content while still maintaining the aura of private, members-
only conversations.

12 Tech Trends To Watch Closely In 2021

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6. Society-as-a-service

Silicon Valley types will move beyond dreams like smart cities to
the literal creation of communities built from the ground up.

Silicon Valley is at once celebrated and ridiculed for its future-

forward culture and tech-centric ethos. But that tech-enabled
existence has often been tacked onto preexisting and old-
fashioned urban environments. Now, as the Silicon Valley true
believers migrate from their namesake home in California to
burgeoning US tech hubs like Austin and Denver, some are looking
at building a true tech paradise from scratch.

Marc Lore, who founded Jet.com and then headed up Walmart’s

e-commerce efforts, recently announced that he was leaving the
retail giant in part to build a city with “a new model for society,”
envisioned as having “the vibrancy, diversity, and culture of New York
City combined with the efficiency, safety, and innovation of Tokyo and
the sustainability, governance, and social services of Sweden.”

These grandiose visions of tech urbanism are catching on.

Saudi Arabia, a major contributor to SoftBank’s startup investment

pot, is building a $500B tech-driven region named Neom where
residents can purportedly expect flying taxis, holographic teachers,
and glow-in-the-dark beaches. The region will also house a more
than 100-mile-long city called “The Line.” Announced earlier this
year, the development is envisioned as being run by AI, producing
no carbon emissions, and including function-specific layers to
avoid conventional street layouts.

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Source: Neom

Saudi Arabia is not alone.

Scores of countries around the world are eager to host their own
tech-forward cities. Corporations like Toyota and Facebook are
building urban landscapes to house workers and test new products.
Wealthy individuals are also getting involved. Bill Gates bought
around 25,000 acres of land in Arizona a few years ago to break
ground on his own vision for a futuristic city.

Others in the tech world have grander designs still. Elon Musk, for
one, wants to build a new society on another planet. The Tesla
and SpaceX CEO has long spoken of his belief that humans should
colonize Mars, but recent moves have brought that vision closer
than ever. In December 2020, SpaceX tested its Starship vehicle —
which Musk wants to send to Mars by 2022 — at high altitude, an
important step toward eventual space flight. His vision for life on
Mars includes a self-governing city encased in a glass dome with
“an outdoorsy, fun atmosphere.”

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Source: SpaceX

Some VCs see a market opportunity amid this swell of city-building

activity. Pronomos Capital, for instance, launched in 2019 and has
received backing from investors including Peter Thiel and Marc
Andreessen to fund Silicon Valley-like communities. One of its aims
is to use the regulatory flexibility offered by local governance to
mimic the rapid growth of cities like Shenzhen in China, which grew
from a fishing town into a major tech hub in just a few decades
after being designated as a special economic zone.

As momentum grows, these from-the-ground-up projects will

continue to attract controversy. Expensive to establish and
often lacking practical plans to fulfill lofty visions, the building of
entirely new towns is seen by some as a road to folly — Alphabet,
for example, scrapped its billion-dollar smart city in Canada last
year after mounting challenges sapped the viability of the project.
There’s also a risk that existing residents will be put off by the idea
of a tech metropolis springing up next door and increasing living
costs. But recent tech advances in areas like AI and backing from
deep-pocketed investors will undoubtedly help some of these next-
gen Silicon Valleys break ground.

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A bigger challenge may be confronting perceptions of what building
a new community represents. For some of these projects — a chunk
of which carry a utopian air — the shared values of the residents
wanting a “better” society seem as important to the founders as
the underlying tech. Such ideals will likely help attract enthused
early inhabitants, but placing too strong a focus on what people
think and how they act could make cities difficult to scale, and may
even threaten the very freedoms that gave rise to places like Silicon
Valley in the first place.

Whatever the eventual fate of today’s ambitious visions, the allure

of starting from scratch is unlikely to fade for entrepreneurs
dreaming of changing the world.

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7. The metaverse mall

Shared virtual spaces will redefine how we shop and interact with
people and businesses.

As malls flounder, metaverses — or the underpinnings of such —

are flourishing.

Malls are meant to be social and a form of entertainment; now,

virtual worlds are fulfilling these functions more than ever, spurred
by the Covid-19 pandemic. Rather than shopping through a
specific retailer’s website, imagine rendezvousing with a friend in a
Minecraft-like world to hang out and shop at digital storefronts.

Though definitions vary, the metaverse generally refers to the

idea of a shared, persistent virtual space, akin to a digital mirror
of the real world — but without any of the constraints. Topics
of debate around what a metaverse would eventually look like
include the degree of interoperability, multiple metaverses vs. a
singular one, consistent identity systems, and decentralization vs.
monopolization (e.g. will it be owned by big tech or by users, à la
Ethereum-based Decentraland?).

Source: Decentraland

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Gaming has long been at the forefront of building out what a
metaverse could look like.

Massively multiplayer online game (MMO) Fortnite is one of the

more successful examples: it has hosted multiple live concerts,
screened movies, shorts, and various other programs, launched
branded game modes, and more.

But it still falls short of the metaverse ideal of true concurrency

due to tech limitations. At Travis Scott’s Fortnite performance, for
example, the 12.3M concert attendees weren’t actually in the same
universe, watching the same show in real time. Instead, viewers
were split up into 250,000 virtual “copies,” each capped at 50
participants, of the concert.

Source: Rolling Stone

Progress is being made, however, and expect more movement on

this front to come. In one example, software development unicorn
Improbable is developing SpatialOS, a cloud platform that allows
games to support up to 20,000 players in a seamless world.

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So, what comes next? E-sports applications and goods are pushing
into the mainstream, marking a natural step toward the metaverse.

For example, virtual goods, initially popularized by gamers (mostly

via character skins), have since entered the worlds of fashion, real
estate, art, and even pets to become a $190B market. Personalized
digital avatars have also gained a foothold beyond games like The
Sims in the last 5 years, popularized by Snapchat-owned Bitmoji,
Apple’s Memojis, influencer and celebrity-focused Genies, and
most recently, Roblox’s acquisition of avatar company Loom.ai.

On a broader scale, these trends illustrate the rapid convergence

of the online and the offline. Among other things, metaverses
will enable the serendipity that is often missing in e-commerce
interactions. For example, Aglet — a “Pokémon Go for
sneakerheads” that allows players to collect virtual sneakers by
walking — plans to eventually allow people and brands to launch
their own virtual retail stores in the app.

“I think where we’re going as a world

[is] where Nike and Adidas will release
products in the real world, and then they’ll
throw these into a game. And I think the
inverse of that is true in the future. There
will be people designing their own brands
in these game worlds, and then they’ll be
made in reality.”
— AGLET CEO RYAN MULLINS

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Once the tech is there, the commerce implications are massive, as
the metaverse offers unprecedented access and total immersion to
consumers — creating a sort of virtual “third space.”

Brands and sellers can thus:

• Operate in a less fragmented marketplace than the internet as

we know it.

• Avoid the “marketplace cut” from third-party discovery or

selling platforms entirely.

• Enable deeper cross-franchise or fan collaboration where,

instead of individual brand marketing opportunities (e.g. each
brand has its own app or website), the metaverse’s open world
allows for more immersive experiences pioneered by both
brands and fans.

Ultimately, spearheading this effort will require massive amounts

of cash, engineering talent, and hunger for domination — making
big tech firms the most likely contenders to build out the metaverse
beyond gaming platforms like Fortnite and Roblox. Tech giants like
Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon are likely to double down on this
in the coming years, according to VC Matthew Ball, given each’s
persistence in owning a significant portion of the online work
economy, social graph, and e-commerce infrastructure.

Though the complete metaverse appears to be years away, in

2021, look for further convergence of the online and offline amid
technological advancements that will enable the build-out of the
metaverse. In the meantime, retailers should look beyond the
near-term and strive to experiment with VR/AR (including the use
of virtual humans), games like Fortnite, or various other existing
tech capabilities. Offering virtual goods may be trendy for 2021,
but in the next 5 years, the trend will likely evolve toward designing
fuller, more fleshed-out virtual universes that offer an immersive
shopping experience.

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8. Clipping crypto

Crypto rewards will reshape how brands, loyalty programs, and

payments companies offer cash back.

Cryptocurrencies are back in the spotlight as some, like bitcoin and

ether, hit new all-time highs. Retailers & payments companies are
looking to cash in by rolling out rewards and loyalty programs using
blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies as an alternative to
traditional points or cash-based systems.

Brands, retailers, and payments companies are getting into

crypto-based rewards products because there’s a growing user
base that wants to earn and hold bitcoin and other digital assets.

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Motivations include:

• As bitcoin’s value fluctuates, there is opportunity to make

money on these rewards as they accrue. In the case of
cashback rewards, consumers would not see the same
opportunity unless the cash is invested into an assets or
savings account.

• Crypto rewards can be converted into fiat currencies like the

US dollar, which can then be used to make purchases at other
merchants. This allows the reward value to extend beyond the
initial loyalty provider.

• Blockchain-based loyalty networks could also help retailers

tap into the ever-growing pool of crypto users and investors.

Switzerland-based startup Qiibee, for example, offers retailers a

loyalty program using blockchain tech that allows participants to
exchange loyalty tokens for rewards and fiat currencies. Meanwhile,
Bakkt aggregates a consumer’s different rewards points into one
“wallet,” allowing users to convert points, miles, or tokens across a
variety of different loyalty programs into cash.

Payments companies are also looking to offer rewards directly

in cryptocurrencies, especially as Covid-19 restrictions have
suppressed travel and leisure, in turn dampening consumer interest
in using points and miles for travel.

Some payments products enable users to spend using

cryptocurrencies instead of fiat currencies. However, barriers to
adoption for these products are high: many cryptocurrencies are
volatile in price, making it less attractive to spend them on goods
and services, while mass adoption is difficult when these products
require users to hold crypto in the first place.

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Now, startups and tech companies are starting to offer crypto
rewards for purchases without requiring that a user actually spend
cryptocurrencies. There are 2 main product lines that are emerging.

One, which has seen growing adoption in the past year, is the
e-commerce crypto rewards product. The most popular offering
here comes from CB Insights Retail Tech 100 winner Lolli, a
shopper rewards platform enabling brands and retailers to offer
customers cash back in the form of bitcoin. The browser extension
allows users to earn up to 30% cash back at retailers and services
like Adidas, Udemy, and Groupon. The company has seen increased
traction by bringing on new partners like eBay and Expedia.

This type of product is not just for those interested in

cryptocurrencies generally. In 2019, 40% of Lolli customers were
new to bitcoin, according to The Block, meaning there’s potential
for widespread adoption outside of typical crypto owners,
especially as loyalty & rewards programs like Lolli create more
flexible and digitized rewards for consumers.

The second product line likely to gain traction in the coming year is
the more nascent space of crypto rewards cards. These debit and
credit cards provide crypto rewards, similar to points or cashback
rewards, for purchases made using the card.

The BlockFi credit card, which hasn’t been released yet, is the
first announced credit card with crypto-based rewards. The
credit card has a $200 annual fee and offers 1.5% in bitcoin back
on all purchases.

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Source: BlockFi

The crypto reward trend is not just impacting cryptocurrency users

or crypto-focused companies — some of the largest payments
companies are also developing new crypto-based offerings.

For example, Square’s peer-to-peer payments app Cash App has

allowed users to purchase bitcoin since 2018, but in December
2020 it announced that purchases made on the company’s debit
card, Cash Card, could receive bitcoin rewards. With 30M Cash App
monthly active users and 7M Cash Card holders, this could help to
boost mainstream adoption of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies,
adding fuel to the fire for crypto rewards.

Crypto rewards may continue to iterate, eventually moving from

exchangeable cryptocurrencies to other blockchain-based
assets like digital art, digital collectibles, access to virtual events,
and more.

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9. Repurposing physical space

From fulfillment centers to mall health clinics to vertical farms,

reimagining spaces will create an unprecedented opportunity.

With record-level departures from urban hotspots, a pivot to remote

working, and the closure of many physical retailers amid stay-at-
home orders, space itself has become one of the most pressing
considerations for companies and individuals.

As restrictions ease, commercial vacancies and people located

away from city centers will reshape how space is utilized going
forward. The emphasis will shift to flexibility and versatility.

But the concept of flexible space isn’t new. For years, co-working
companies like Industrious, Knotel, and WeWork have monetized
the space-as-a-service concept, with WeWork incorporating
barbershops, ballrooms, and basketball courts into shared
workspaces. Similarly, companies like Airbnb have given people
an opportunity to repurpose their residential homes as rental
accomodations.

Now, Covid-19 is accelerating property repurposing and forcing

organizations to transform their vacancies at a rapid clip — and for
some, in unexpected ways:

• Companies will rethink the office space as some decentralize

using hub-and-spoke models, creating potential for satellite
offices in mixed-use buildings or non-traditional spaces.

• Parking lots will be increasingly explored for open-air retail

or entertainment. Some are already acting as medical testing
sites and drive-in movie theaters.

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• Practices like vertical farming — or indoor farming — will
see new life as people think about food security and access,
allowing companies to imagine unoccupied commercial
buildings as spaces for urban farms to flourish.

The opportunities are seemingly limitless and ever-evolving.

Restaurants are one example: With a projected loss of $240B for
2020, according to the National Restaurant Association, and sales
remaining at depressed levels, many restaurants have begun to
repurpose locations to help keep business afloat.

National chains like Panera and Subway have turned some

locations into grocery stores to help offload excess inventory and
provide in-demand essentials. Other local chains nationwide have
jumped on the trend, setting up temporary marts across locations
to help offset losses.

With dine-in options largely on hold, many restaurants have pivoted

to the “ghost kitchen” model (which was already gaining traction
pre-Covid), transforming either their own physical spaces or other
vacancies into delivery-only cooking facilities. Startups are also
helping facilitate this: REEF Technology, for one, transforms parking
lots and garages into ghost kitchens as part of its services. It raised
$700M in equity funding in November 2020.

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Beyond restaurants, retailers are also transforming their physical
stores. Already threatened by the ongoing retail apocalypse amid
a surging digital revolution, more brands are looking for ways to
double their emptying stores as fulfillment centers.

Best Buy, for example, redesigned 4 of its stores to test out a

fulfillment hub store plan. “Shoppable” areas decreased by about
12,000 square feet, creating more space for pick-up and ship-
from-store orders. Whole Foods launched its first-ever “dark store”
in September 2020 after experimenting with these delivery-only
centers in at least 6 existing stores. Bed, Bath, And Beyond has
also experimented with flexible formats, converting 25% of its retail
locations into dark stores amid the pandemic.

E-commerce companies are also entering the mix. Amazon is in

talks with the largest mall owner in the US, Simon Property Group,
to convert vacant department stores into fulfillment locations.
The company has already converted out-of-business malls in
Cleveland, Ohio, to act as fulfillment warehouses.

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Across malls, vacancies are at an all-time high of 9.8%, according
to Moody’s — surpassing the previous record high of 9.3% in
2011. While repurposing malls has been considered in the past,
Covid-19 is accelerating the opportunity to explore these spaces as
more viable and immediate options for healthcare. While chapels,
cafeterias, parking lots, and even (unsuccessfully) a ship have
already been turned into makeshift hospitals, malls offer potential
upsides, especially given the amount and variety of space.

Source: EwingCole

Time Equities, which owns a number of malls (among other

properties), indicated that one of its Georgia-based shopping
centers is increasingly signing leases with doctors and dentists.

Malls and other retailers are also opening up their parking lots,
enabling everything from food trucks to virtual concerts to mobile
Covid testing sites to pull up. Walmart, for example, launched pop-
up drive-in movies across 160 of its parking lot locations.

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While the pandemic launched or accelerated many of these
shifts, the experiments will lead to significant long-term changes,
especially given potential cost and efficiency savings. Satellite
offices, specifically, will encourage a more diverse network of
talent and enable organizations to be more intentional about their
use of space.

The way we use space could also shift operations across the
commercial real estate industry, particularly when it comes
to lease negotiations and arrangements. It may even open
up opportunities on the residential side, where underutilized
commercial spaces could be converted into new housing units,
community spaces, or educational facilities.

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10. Hotelization of the office

As office culture returns, spaces will be less populated and

personal, and the aesthetic will shift away from the collaborative
“campus” model.

Over the next year, workers will find themselves returning to an

office very different from the one they left last year.

In the short-term, employers are focused on cleaning, sanitization,

and air quality, and may look to disinfection startups, self-cleaning
tech, and an array of other solutions to help keep air and surfaces
clean and germ-free. But the effects of the past year of lockdowns
will extend beyond cleaning and social distancing measures.

More long-term, expect to see offices becoming increasingly

like hotels used for short visits, and less like the cushy big tech
“campuses” that came into fashion in the pre-Covid era.

To space people out, desk areas may become less personalized.

Software companies like Skedda, Meetio, Robin, and iOffice-owned
Teem are helping employers with customizable hot-desking and
co-working scheduling solutions. Rather than having their own
cubicles or offices, workers may only come into the physical office
a couple times a week, after booking work spaces in advance.
This can also help organizations save on leasing costs. For larger
spaces like conference rooms, cafeterias, and events venues,
scheduling software can facilitate booking and “check-in” and
“check-out” protocols, as well as manage cleaning between uses.

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Source: Robin

Interior office design may also see significant changes. In recent

years, office design for tech giants like Google and Microsoft has
focused on a cheerful, collaborative campus atmosphere that
encourages workers to spend time at work and freely interact with
others. Now, as the coronavirus pandemic normalizes remote
work, and as concerns about distancing reduce casual in-person
interactions, office spaces may no longer be designed to maximize
in-office time or facilitate casual employee interactions.

For times when they do want to encourage in-person work,

employers will have to find a way to balance the sterility of a clean,
safety-first environment with pleasant, attractive spaces. Plants,
natural light, and better airflow could all be major design focuses
for companies looking to bring the outdoors in and make office
spaces more desirable without detracting from cleaning and
distancing protocols. Simple measures like touchless doors could
make offices feel safe and modern. Together, deliberate tech and
interior design choices can make offices more enticing spaces,
even in the age of work-from-home and social distancing.

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Finally, we may see an increase in companies offering virtual
common spaces, beyond the widespread adoption of video
conferencing software like Zoom that has already taken place.
Augmented reality and virtual reality are already reshaping
education and training, and now companies have started to
experiment with AR/VR in a work context to help capture a human
element even in virtual interactions. Spatial, for example, allows
people to interact using 3D avatars. Spatial is compatible with any
AR or VR device in addition to standard webcams, and can give
users the ability to perform “in-person” rituals like shaking hands
and high-fiving.

Ultimately, vaccines and cleaning tech may make offices safer in

coming months. But as working remotely proves to be just as (or
even more) productive as office work, many companies will see
an irrevocable shift in office culture in the coming years. They will
need to be prepared for a future where employees treat going into
the office less like showing up at their home away from home, and
more like a special occasion, like checking into a hotel.

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11. Ambient wellness

The continued convergence of health and self-care will unbundle

the spa and bring it into homes, shops, and beyond.

The idea of embedding health-boosting tech into consumers’

environments to improve their wellbeing isn’t new. Anyone who
has ever visited a spa knows that the right combination of light,
sound, and fragrance has a big impact on mood and relaxation.

Now, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought the importance of holistic

wellness into sharper focus, especially in public settings. With a
return to normalcy potentially on the horizon, organizations will
be hyper-focused on creating environments and experiences that
prioritize consumer wellness and draw them back into public spaces.

In 2021, look for ambient wellness to appear everywhere — from

the office to the home — with initiatives like:

• An increase in designing HVAC and air filtration systems

overall, with some retailers and businesses choosing to
integrate scent-releasing capabilities to help create immersive
customer experiences and to improve relaxation at home.

• Smart personalized lighting systems that could increase

employee productivity and satisfaction.

• Sound-masking systems in doctors’ offices that emit white

noise to keep conversations private and reduce stress in the
waiting room.

Media attention for fragrance and aroma tech has steadily trended
upward over the course of the pandemic, especially as consumers
have turned to aromatherapy as a form of self-care and stress relief.
Additionally, the global fragrance and perfume market is worth
$52.8B, according to CB Insights’ Industry Analyst Consensus.

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Home scents are leading the charge. This space includes startups
like Pura Scents, which offers a smart fragrance diffuser, and
Vitruvi, which creates stylish diffusers that use non-toxic and
natural scents. Another startup in the category is Essio Shower,
which offers an aromatherapy shower diffuser for a spa-like
experience at home.

Source: Essio Shower

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But the effects of fragrance aren’t limited to the home. Retailers
use scents in their stores to create brand-specific experiences.
For example, Haddad Brands — a children’s apparel licensor of
Nike, Jordan, Converse, and others — uses scents along with video
and music to create immersive experiences in its showrooms. In
terms of entertainment, Disney was recently granted a patent for
“scent blending” to add another dimension to immersive rides
and experiences.

Even as the pandemic subsides and restrictions lift, wellness-

enhancing fragrance products will likely continue to gain
momentum and become more personalized for a given room and
its intended use. Going forward, look for products that release
scents based on consumers’ dynamic needs or to create a more
enhanced shopper experience.

Light also plays a significant role in wellness. Traditional lighting

is not designed to sync up with natural circadian rhythms, and
disrupted circadian rhythms can lead to poor sleep, in turn
exacerbating a number of illnesses. In 2021, look for smart lighting
to become more popular in homes and offices. This could include
LED circadian lighting, which is designed to support the body’s
natural rhythms.

Source: Wellness Habitat

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Tunable LED circadian lighting mimics the pattern of natural
sunlight by automatically adjusting the light’s color temperature
over the course of the day. Brighter light during daylight hours
can help stimulate activity and productivity, while dimmer light at
night can encourage rest and relaxation. Companies like Yeelight
are developing Bluetooth-enabled smart lighting products that
let consumers adjust brightness, color temperature, and color
themselves.

This kind of technology could also be beneficial in the office. David

Pfund, president of a division within manufacturer The Lighting
Quotient, says that personal lighting controls in the office could
become common practice:

“There’s been a lot of research showing

that, when people have control over their
work environment, they are happier.
Putting lighting closer to people and
giving them dimming control adds to
personal satisfaction and productivity.”

Restaurants and retail locations could also use mood-boosting

lighting products as they begin to reopen. This concept is not
without precedent: In 2016, Starbucks teamed up with Philips to
install EnergyUp lamps in 4 cafes in the Netherlands. The lamps
mimic natural daylight and reportedly have a “revitalizing effect”
after 20 minutes of use. In the post-Covid world, look for more
businesses to embrace this technology.

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50
Source: TrendWatching

In retail, lighting can improve the customer experience, which

can lead to increased sales and brand loyalty. Controllable
fixtures in “live” lighting systems can adjust brightness and color
temperature to highlight certain products and create an emotional
response in customers.

Sleep is another key category that stands to gain from the ambient
wellness movement. About a third of adults in the US don’t get
adequate sleep, which can contribute to diabetes, cardiovascular
disease, depression, and other health issues. Startups are
leveraging sensor tech to create products that can sense sleep
disruptions and automatically adjust external factors to help users
sleep. For example, companies like Eight, ReST, and Sleepace
use mattress-embedded biosensors to adjust factors such as
mattress temperature, firmness, and more.

In 2021, with health and wellness top of mind in the wake of

Covid-19, watch for companies in the space to integrate their
products into multiple aspects of consumers’ lives. Sleep tech
could enhance consumers’ overall mental and physical health
at home, as well as in hotels. Meanwhile, smart lighting and
fragrance tech could become essentials for the home and, as
restrictions are lifted, offices, retail stores, restaurants, and more.

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12. Hospital-at-home

To fill the gaps in telehealth, expect more healthcare services in the

home, from house calls to remote patient monitoring to at-home
lab testing.

After 2020 forced medical providers to go virtual for a range of

services, the value of keeping people out of the doctor’s office has
become evident: the shift to telehealth has enabled shorter wait
times, reduced risk of infection, and enabled more affordable care.
In 2020, annual funding to private telehealth companies grew nearly
70% YoY, surpassing $10B.

But the limitations of telemedicine also require a broader

reimagining of what medical-level monitoring in the home should
look like. As a result, 2021 will be a turning point for the US hospital-
at-home movement — 26 years after the model was first conceived.

Hospital-at-home programs are designed to deliver hospital-level

care to patients in their own homes. Though they’re not physically
located within a hospital, patients are continuously and intimately
connected to their care teams through in-person visits, virtual
visits, digital communication channels, and remote biometric
monitoring technologies.

More broadly, a range of innovations are bringing care into the home:

• Hybrid virtual/in-person models are being increasingly used to

provide on-demand care delivery.

• Smartphones are being employed to remotely interpret urinalysis

tests and track wound healing for review by a clinician.

• Lab testing is entering the home, accelerated by the Covid-19

pandemic, as the FDA recently gave emergency use authorization
to Ellume’s over-the-counter, fully at-home Covid-19 test kit, in
addition to greenlighting over 25 mail-in Covid-19 tests.

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Source: Medically Home

A growing body of evidence justifies the model’s value. Hospital-

at-home programs have consistently demonstrated their ability
to provide high-quality care, improve patient outcomes, address
social determinants of health, enhance patient satisfaction, and
reduce costs. For these reasons, they’ve become firmly established
in the UK, Canada, Australia, and several other countries with
government-run health systems.

“If home hospital were a drug, everyone

would buy it.”
— DR. DAVID LEVINE, “HOME HOSPITAL” CO-DEVELOPER,
BRIGHAM & WOMEN’S HOSPITAL

These programs have struggled to take off in the US due to

demand, payment, and implementation barriers. However, the onset
of Covid-19 — alongside the rapid growth in telehealth capacity
— has led to renewed focus on the viability of these options.

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Reflecting this, mentions of “hospital at home” have jumped in the
media and on earnings calls.

To help expand pandemic-related surge capacity and facilitate

hospital-at-home care, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services (CMS) launched an Acute Hospital Care at Home
program. By offering direct logistical support and reimbursement,
the program aims to give hospitals greater flexibility in treating
patients at home.

CMS has already granted 7 waivers to major hospitals and health

systems to employ the program, and executives are optimistic that
CMS could eventually turn this into a more permanent solution.

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Companies like Medically Home, DispatchHealth, Contessa Health,
Biofourmis, and Current Health are partnering with hospitals and
health systems to manage logistics, provide technology, and
coordinate hospital-at-home care.

Source: Biofourmis

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Beyond developing hospital-at-home programs, some companies
are focused on making lab testing easier by enabling sample
collection at home. D2C startups like LetsGetChecked, 23andMe,
and Modern Fertility offer mail-in lab testing and at-home tests for
everything from general wellness — like STI and vitamin deficiency
testing — to genetic screening to fertility testing.

Taking it a step further, healthcare systems like Kaiser Permanente

and the federal Veterans Health Administration are deploying a
mail-in lab test that checks for blood in stool, bringing colorectal
cancer screening capabilities home. In another example, Humana
has partnered with Everlywell to offer at-home screenings for colon
cancer as well as for kidney function and blood glucose levels.

Source: Everlywell

Moving forward, advances in microneedles for self-administered

specimen collection could add another layer to the hospital-at-
home trend. Whereas most blood draws are conducted in person
by a trained medical professional, patients could collect their
own samples from home with easy-to-use microneedle devices.
The samples can then be mailed to a lab or — in some cases —
analyzed on the spot.

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Source: TAP

While Seventh Sense Biosystems’ TAP wearable blood collection

device is the only commercially available option, at-home blood
collection via microneedle will transform at-home testing as
the tech develops. Over 400M blood draws occur each year in
US hospitals, but at-home blood draws promise to allow more
patients to stay home for a more convenient and comfortable
testing experience, expanding the reach of hospital-at-home care.

Looking ahead, the integration of at-home lab testing with

telehealth services and home healthcare visits will be especially
relevant for senior populations, which face greater mobility
difficulties and vulnerability to disease. The Population Reference
Bureau projects that the number of Americans aged 65+ will nearly
double from 52M in 2018 to 95M by 2060 — and the senior care
sector will face pressure to grow at a similar pace.

Between aging patient populations and rising patient expectations,

the lower risk and greater convenience of hospital-at-home
programs could make them a crucial part of healthcare delivery,
even long after the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic have subsided.

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Through the duration of the public health emergency this year,
expect to see an increase in partnerships between startups,
corporates, and health systems in the hospital-at-home space.
In the longer-term, mainstream adoption of hospital-at-home
care will likely depend on greater traction of value-based payment
models and permanent regulatory actions taken by CMS and other
government agencies.

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