We can all feel the world around us getting more digital. You could be reading this on a handheld digital device; you might have bought something online recently; and you will almost certainly have used a digital channel for news, music or photo-sharing in the past 24 hours.  

We believe this is just the start of the digital economy, and thanks to many underlying forces pushed further by COVID-19, it is only going to get bigger in the years ahead.  

The pandemic has caused a re-think in how the world thinks about digital technology. It’s allowed us to work remotely, shop for groceries and essentials and stay in touch with family in ways that we hadn’t quite realised previously. To say you were going to ‘Zoom’ someone back in 2019 would have sounded crazy.  

The crisis is speeding up what was already happening. As we wrote in both The rise of the digital natives (back in September 2017) and The disrupted economy (in February 2019), the role of digital consumption in the global economy has been rising. And it was expected to keep rising, driven by gradual shifts in consumer tastes, demographic change and the development of new technologies. Indeed, over the next decade, the share of consumers who are digital natives was predicted to double across the world, meaning more consumers willing to use more digital technologies and more open to adopting new tech.  

Now things could move even faster. Think of the behavioural changes caused by the pandemic. Parents will have used social media or video calls to keep in touch with their children. Office staff will have worked from home. And with physical stores closed, people of all ages will have bought items online – from clothes and toiletries to beer, and from paint to cutlery. Many of these behavioural switches may be permanent.   

If they are, governments around the world will need to invest in digital infrastructure and upgrade existing systems. And this will need to happen anyway in countries where people find it hard to work remotely or shop online due to a paucity of digital devices or slow internet speeds.  

Of course, some of these changes will be reversed – and there are signs that some of our digital switching has cooled in the past few months with ‘zoom fatigue’ and missing in-person interaction – but usage of digital services is still far more elevated than it was before COVID-19.   

Taken together this means that ever more consumption is going to go digital. We estimate that roughly 50% of goods consumption could easily be made online in many developed markets by 2030. The UK pointed the way ahead at the peak of the pandemic, when a third of retail sales were online. How close we get to the 50% number will vary by country, and while it does imply a big change in consumer habits, it is worth remembering that a decade ago we used to buy flights in shops. A lot can change in ten years. 

On the production side, we expect more businesses to invest in automation in the coming years − both to save costs and to make social distancing easier. The falling cost of industrial and service robots means that we could see the number of industrial robots rise fourfold by 2030.  

The huge stock market outperformance of the US tech giants in 2020 is likely reflecting a view that the pandemic has transformed the prospects of the digital economy over the long term. 

All of this could cause significant disruption to lifestyles and have huge economic implications: some positive, some negative, and some that are unclear. Potential changes include:  

 Remote working becomes the norm, and flexible working may follow. The pandemic has allowed millions of service sector employees to work remotely and flexibly. We expect the trend to continue even when the pandemic is over, even if people only work at home part-time. This could be the first step to truly flexible working, which could add to productivity. Shorter working weeks are possible if this becomes the case.  

 Leisure time will increase. With less time wasted commuting, we will have more time to spend with our friends and family or to consume entertainment, if incomes permit. This may not be physical leisure activities – content consumption will likely keep increasing too. This multi-decade trend has been interrupted by the pandemic, but a more digital economy will push leisure even further.  

 Banking penetration could rise. Governments, central banks, businesses and households have all turned their backs on cash payments during the pandemic. Ultimately this may lead to faster adoption of bank accounts and mobile money in many parts of the world.  

 Inflation may come under pressure. While much of the short-term debate on inflation focuses on the trade-off between supply chain disruption and the unprecedented drop in demand, further out a more digital economy should lower costs for businesses and improve price transparency, pushing inflation lower than it otherwise would be for a given set of economic conditions. 

 Measuring the economy may be harder. Some digital transactions are harder to track than physical ones in traditional economic data, particularly in real time. And as goods become services (think about fewer CDs and more streaming) we could see a natural drag to industrial production and goods trade data – making them less valuable measures of activity. A shift to a broader set of data may be needed to track activity in real time, and GDP data may be more prone to revisions.  

 Jobs could be at risk from automation. While some jobs will be created as tech companies expand and new companies spring up, wage growth will likely be lower for lowskill workers. 

All of this will create more challenges for policymakers. Central bankers will have to contend with an economy that is harder to track in real time and inflation rates that are lower than they otherwise would be.  

For governments and society more broadly, the risk is that inequality widens, particularly if wages and employment levels for low-skill jobs are hit hard. We could see policies such as universal basic income or job guarantees becoming more widely discussed. We could see higher taxes on tech companies, which in turn could lead to more international disputes. And governments will have to be more alert to data security and cybercrime. This could either lead us down the route of more international cooperation − or to increased tensions − depending on how things progress.  

Finally, we look at which technologies can make this all possible. Getting the world connected will require innovative developments such as low-orbit satellites. Virtual reality can change the way we think about work and leisure, particularly as headsets improve and drop in price. Further developments in AI and robotics could mean more jobs being automated, allowing businesses to save costs but adding to personal insecurity. See page 37 for all of the details.  

This report shows how the digital economy has accelerated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We aim to delve into more detail on certain topics in subsequent notes.  

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