Out of touch: Will Covid-19 impact tech interaction?

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In a world where Covid-19 is pushing people apart, it is causing them to consider how they carry out routine daily tasks and move around the world while minimising contact.

Technologies that allow interactions to remain hands-free could provide solutions.

Research from Capgemini found that 77% of people across 12 countries expect their use of touchless technologies to increase during the pandemic. The study also found that 62% of people thought this trend would continue after the current crisis ends.

Cashless catalyst? 

One example is contactless payment. UK Finance, a trade body for the UK banking sector, found that 32% of credit card transactions and 45% of debit card transactions in the UK were made using contactless cards in February 2020. In that same month, the total value of contactless transactions was £6.7bn, a 13.6% increase from £5.9bn in February 2019.

Other countries are even further ahead. China has long been considered the global leader in contactless and phone payment technologies, with 50% of the population using proximity mobile payments, according to an estimate from eMarketer. The Nordic countries, in particular Sweden, have also normalised payment by contactless and through apps. As many visitors to Stockholm will attest, it is legitimately difficult to spend cash in many places.

Covid-19 could also be a catalyst for more online shopping. Research from Bank of America and the US Department of Commerce shows that, while e-commerce penetration in the US doubled between 2009 and 2019 from 5.6% to 16%, in April 2020 it rose to 27%.

“We are going through the biggest digital training course the world has ever seen,” says marketing consultant Steven Van Belleghem. “People need digital for work, communication with friends and family, entertainment and shopping. My assumption and hypothesis is that we would see an increase in contactless use among all age categories.”

He says: “Some barriers have been removed, and are gone forever. People have experienced a higher level of convenience and safety, and there is absolutely no reason to go back.”

Safety is one of the big drivers of people’s behaviours during the pandemic. A survey of almost 7,000 Canadian and American adults carried out between 21 March and 1 April by psychologists Gordon Asmundson and Steven Taylor found that 25% of respondents had high levels of stress about Covid-19, which includes a fear of getting the virus from surfaces in public places.

Emma Chiu, global director of Wunderman Thompson Intelligence, says social-distancing restrictions and people’s attempts to avoid contracting Covid-19 have boosted touchless technology.

“One of the health warnings is to try to not touch so many surfaces,” she says. “With that in mind, people are now thinking about all of the surfaces they interact with when doing something as simple as going to the grocery store. If you need to touch a pad to type in your PIN, increasingly people think: ‘How many times has that surface been touched by other people? When was the last time it was cleaned?’ Retailers who offer contactless payments will be rewarded with consumer loyalty, as they feel safer going there.”

Chiu says there could be an acceleration in “using ourselves as payment” for in-store goods. Amazon’s 2018 experiment with a checkout-free shop in Seattle is an example of how technology could reduce human interaction in public places. Amazon Go saw people download an app to allow access to the store, with cameras and sensors tracking what they removed and replaced on shelves. Customers’ credit cards were charged when they left.

A brave new world

Covid-19 is already ushering in other touchless design features. In Japan, for example, sensor manufacturer Optex has launched a contactless switch that opens and closes doors by holding a hand over a sensor. Fujitec has also launched a lift that comes with an optional contactless panel that uses infrared sensors to select a floor based on the person’s hand position over a dashboard.

But what will a more contactless world look like? One of the shifts could be an even greater use of smartphones. It could extend to a hands-free approach in other areas – for example, people could begin accessing hotel rooms, offices or their own homes via electronic ‘keys’ stored on their phones. Research from experience design company Foolproof suggests that seven in 10 people would prefer to use their phones to connect with services rather than using touchscreens in shops, for example.

Tom Johnson, managing director of Trajectory, says that the pandemic will increase automation and reduce staff interaction in many areas of life, with shop customers keen to keep human contact to the bare minimum.

“What you will see is stores, particularly bigger retail stores, doing more to shift their customers onto contactless modes of shopping,” he says. “At the moment, stores are set up to have a certain proportion of their customers do that. You can see that widening as they will be under pressure to reduce human contact as far as possible to meet social-distancing guidelines and reassure the public it is safe to shop.”

Voice technology could also have a crucial role to play in running services without unnecessary physical contact. The technology is becoming more popular but has been limited outside home smart assistants. According to Belleghem, voice tech is simply not yet ready for widespread use in public places, but it could be on the cusp of a breakthrough as companies start to experiment.

There is also facial recognition, which has long been controversial because of the privacy implications of its use in public places. However, it seems to be gaining acceptance, albeit temporarily, and could potentially offer a means of identification without the need for touch. The Capgemini study found that 52% of consumers prefer facial recognition for authentication during the pandemic, but that fell to 39% when asked
about its use post-Covid-19. It has gained traction in recent years; for example, last year, CaixaBank in Spain allowed customers to use facial recognition to withdraw cash from ATMs.

Chiu expects that whatever happens in the next few months, developers will see now as the ideal time to test new products and experiment with how touchless technology could revolutionise our lives.

“This is the ultimate disruption for every industry, and it is the perfect time to introduce new and unusual habits that connect with safety and hygiene,” Chiu says. “People are in the midst of something new to them already.”

This article was first published in the July 2020 issue of Impact.