It doesn’t seem too long ago that the introduction of interactive voice response (IVR) received a rocky reception with many customers citing that they preferred to speak to a ‘real human’.

There can be no doubt the pandemic has altered the emotional make-up of society. Collectively, we are now much more aware of the suffering of others – and how could we not be after seeing lives turned upside down and businesses upended with no sense of rhyme or reason or equity.

As we’ve mentioned in a previous article, 2021 saw smaller UK energy suppliers cease trading and exit the market at an unprecedented rate.

So far we have seen how customer demands are driving invention and innovation within the utilities industry.

A popular online brokerage prided itself on building a customer experience that made trading stocks as easy as swiping right or left to purchase a book online.

More consumers can now choose to charge an electric car at home, generate their own electricity from solar panels, track their energy usage with a smart meter and turn their washing machine on wirelessly when their energy is at its cheapest.

‘Innovation’ has become a loaded word, one that can send a shiver down the spine of even the most forward-thinking CEO.

A few years ago, a breach that impacted several million people would have been big news. In 2019 roughly 3.5 billion people saw their personal data stolen in the top two security breaches of that year alone.

Cyber security has an air of mystery to it. Something hidden in the shadows and only able to be understood by technologists and spies.

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for cyber security but also changed the very nature of the beast.