5 Trends to Look Forward to in 2022, in Business and Beyond

The new year always brings a sense of uncertainty, hope, and possibility, all mixed together. It’s a time for setting ambitious goals for the future and reflecting on past achievements. The new year comes with the openness of all possibilities, even if it’s just the calendar turning a page. It feels like a new beginning and unexplored territory. With the new year comes continuing powerful trends in all areas of business, and a chance for new trends to take off and flourish. Looking over the industry data, these are five key trends in 2022 that we think will shape businesses.

In all areas of business, sustainability is key for future strategy

From renewable energy to sustainable sources for our everyday goods, sustainability and an eye to climate impact are important for all businesses to keep in mind. But this comes at its own cost, with more sustainable options taking more time, energy, or money to achieve. Similar to the global shift away from hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in many household products in the 80s-90s, to help protect the atmospheric ozone layer, climate change is coming to a tipping point: if the global market doesn’t shift to prioritize undoing or reducing harm to the environment, the world won’t be able to recover. Businesses have to prioritize where their money is going with regards to sustainable options for packaging, products, and supply chain efforts, and they have to do it as a collective. Individual actions around sustainability won’t make a difference if the largest contributors to climate change are companies that haven’t been pushed by public and global pressures to do the same.

In healthcare, telehealth is the new standard

Electronic health records (EHRs) were the last big digital transformation in healthcare, but with the pandemic prioritizing remote and digital care over in-person, telehealth has seen a huge increase in the past two years, globally. With the advent of EHRs and health information becoming easier to share securely over digital means, patients and HCPs are finding it easier to adapt to digital means for healthcare consultation as well. With apps like Teladoc, Doxy.me, and EHR applications like MyChart and NextGen Healthcare connecting patients to their care teams, telehealth has become a new standard for care. This connection is driven through technology, so this standard isn’t equitable until better technology and internet access is available to all, but that seems to be what’s coming in 2022, with improved global infrastructure to support a more digital world than pre-pandemic. These platforms for digital care can help physicians plan their time better, connect to more remote patients, and make healthcare data easier to access and reference when outside of a healthcare setting.

In investment and financial services, NFTs are stealing the spotlight

Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are the hottest commodity in the investment market, with many pouring their money into owning and trading these digital objects, based on very tumultuous market trends. They’re the new version of collectible objects, for a digital age, relying on computer code and data to denote ownership. Along with cryptocurrency, it’s a version of putting money into a digital economy for investment purposes, but as a largely untested space, the market moves are hard to understand and even harder to predict. 2022 started off with announcements from large brands, and even Melania Trump herself, that they’ll be making ventures into the NFT space, with digital art, characters, and artifacts being the top items for brands to put on sale. As we see this market grow in popularity but also stability, economists will be able to better understand and analyze this area of investment.

In graphic design, the bolder and bubblier, the better

As you might have noticed, our website and branding got a whole upgrade in December 2021. This came along with a host of design decisions and consultations to find the best look for our company based on our industry and audience. As millennials and Generation Z continue to grow and take over various industries, graphic and visual design is one area where these generations are a key audience for engagement. Based on social media and fashion trends, design is looking backward these days, specifically to the 1990s, with a huge increase in brighter and bolder colors, as well as bubblier and more eye-catching fonts and graphics. This trend seems to be directly tied to the recent fascination that social media and the millennial and GenZ groups have been having with throwback concepts. By catering to this huge and community-oriented demographic, businesses have a better chance to catch customers’ eyes and be talked about on all platforms. By making designs match this retro comeback, businesses can both have more fun with bold and bright designs, as well as showing that they know where the design power lies these days.

In social justice, “human rights for all” is still a work in progress

After the tumultuous summer of 2020, where racial justice was the primary force of change when it came to protests and community movements, we’re still seeing the aftereffects of that surge in activism. With continued court cases around instances of police brutality making the news, and the pandemic still being handled inequitably in the US and around the world, basic human rights are still being pursued by everyone. The New Humanitarian released a list of 10 humanitarian crises to watch in 2022 and beyond, and the fact that this list exists shows that not only do these problems exist, but each of these crises has strategies for how people around the world can get involved. By donating to protests around the world, and amplifying activist voices through social media, we’ve seen the world come together remotely to help tackle problems large and small. This energy needs to continue in 2022 to ensure that we all can achieve a better future together.