Just four short years ago, Gartner predicted there would be five times the amount of work than developers to do that work by 2021.

That prediction has been realized, and accelerated, by COVID, as every company shifted to digital during quarantines and lockdown.

Many found that boxed software solutions didn’t fit the unique needs of their businesses and customers; they needed developers to design and build custom experiences.

For business leaders, that means it’s never been more critical to build a culture and organization where developers want to be; where they can thrive, tackling real business challenges, not acting simply as the ‘code monkeys’ so many companies treat them as.

Failure to recognize this and act on it will inevitably lead to disruption, Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson writes in Ask Your Developer, his debut book launching today.

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If 2020 has taught us nothing else, it’s that …

There are two elements of vaccine distribution that most crucially require the time and attention of a healthcare worker: physically administering the dose, and assessing the patient to ensure there are no immediate adverse reactions.

In reality, those are far from the only two tasks workers—from frontline medical personnel to administrative staff—will be expected to carry out over the course of successfully vaccinating the global population against COVID-19.

With unprecedented demand and pressure rising to deliver doses as quickly as possible, the strain on healthcare workers over the course of this pandemic is likely to continue until widespread immunization has been achieved.

Keeping these workers safe, healthy, and as stress-free as possible given the circumstances should be our highest priority—after all, that’s exactly what they’ve done for all of us over the course of this devastating crisis.

Below are four automated digital communication strategies that can be used to help …

In 2020, the power of digital communications showed itself to be integral business resilience. It wasn’t just a year of battening down hatches and surviving—this is the year we digitally advanced at a rate that should have taken companies a decade to complete. This is the year we gave customers even more autonomy to create relationships in the way they want with businesses they trust. This is the year we rolled with the retail punches, modernized the financial industry from the inside out, and changed the face of healthcare forever.

The longest year. The hardest year. The most frustrating year. And yet… the year where we showed up, dug in, and became better for it. Our most-popular content from the second half of this year exemplifies this. From healthcare to finance, chatbots to cloud-based contact centers, here are the top ten lessons learned through the content our readers …

From game nights with friends to check-ups with our doctors, the pandemic has shifted more of our daily activities to digital-first experiences via video.

In the short term, many businesses made do with overnight fixes to keep themselves and the public safe.

But as video communications become increasingly entrenched in our lives, and more consumers recognize its ease and convenience, their staying power will endure even once it’s safer to return to in-person services—and that requires strategic thinking about the future of video for your business.

By the end of this year, 84 percent of companies expect to have video communication options available to customers. More than 75 percent of hospitals already have or are developing telehealth programs to connect with patients, while major brands like Facebook are trying to set their video experiences apart through interactive gamification features like polls and quizzes.

It’s clear video is a must for …

This year, we’ve written more than 40 pieces about COVID-19 and how businesses across industries can use this strange time in history to modernize their business and develop a more agile workforce to thrive in a post-pandemic world.

In the spirit of giving the gift of knowledge, we’ve rallied up our top content to inspire you to harness these customer engagement strategies and best practices to build a better business into 2021.

While this content focuses on COVID-19 specifically, the takeaways speak to the future of how our world will work and what’s next in communication with your customers.

For the data-obsessed colleague looking for long-term customer engagement metrics:

Look no further than our COVID-19 Digital Engagement Report, our in-depth guide on the shifting customer engagement trends brought on by COVID-19. Earlier this year, Twilio surveyed 2,500+ enterprise decision-makers around the world to find out what effect the pandemic …

Twilio welcomes Simonetta Turek as the new General Manager of Twilio Flex. Born from APIs, Twilio Flex is a contact center platform companies trust to execute their differentiated customer experiences for competitive advantage. Simonetta joins us from AWS and a long career in enterprise software and communications, with a passion for and extensive knowledge of the customer engagement space. Welcome aboard, Simonetta!

I like to get off the grid. Finding some head space away from the notifications, emails, and cell service is just as important to my productivity as actually crossing off items on my to-do list. It makes me think differently, look at problems and solutions from new angles, and ultimately, be better at what I do.

I’ve spent several years working in the contact center space and the past nine months working remotely. In that time away from the office, I’ve noticed that alongside the new necessity of …

In the early days of the pandemic, the world shut down—and the economy with it. In weeks, we saw uncertainty across industries as workers were furloughed or laid off, companies went out of business, and our lives changed overnight.

But in the midst of that uncertainty, something inspiring happened: leaders, workers, and developers in tech and communications adapted their thinking to this new paradigm, hoping to find solutions that would ease the burden the pandemic had brought on.

My team works closely with companies at the forefront of emerging Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. IoT refers to objects that collect data which can optimize everyday experiences—meaning anything from smart home devices to remote patient monitors.

Before the pandemic, IoT was already poised to change in how we work. The pandemic has only sped up its adoption and shown us how powerful of a tool it can really be.

While …

Consumer notification fatigue is real. From the constant ping of an enthusiastic group text thread, to the 17th sales-related email on a single day, to order delivery notifications on our smartwatches and everything in between, it's one thing to send a message, but entirely another to capture a person's attention with it.

That's why in today's 24/7 world, it's more important than ever for brands to notify their customers with messages that are valuable, personalized, and trust-building. Valuable in that the notifications shared are useful to the recipient, personalized in that they are relevant and cut through the noise and trust-building by providing autonomy to the customer to choose the communication channel they prefer engaging on.

Learn more about building an effective notifications strategy below and calculate the ROI for your business in our latest business value calculator here.

Continuing the conversation

Now is not the time to slow …

Institutions of all sizes—global banks, regional banks, community banks, and credit unions—face a crossroads. The generational opportunity to embrace online customer experience and redefine innovation trajectories to match surging digital engagement will transform banking as we know it.

A lot has been written about “challenger banks,” who are helping to raise the bar on what banking should be. As these challenger banks have grown globally both in number and account holder growth, their success can be a source of strategic insights as banks of all sizes accelerate their digital plans. But aging technology infrastructure, changing demographics, evolving consumer behavior, and now Covid-19 are creating a transformative opportunity for incumbents.

While challenger banks have captured headlines for the past several years for their growth and acceleration, all financial institutions can step up to the moment and adopt a “challenger mindset” as a strategic framework to shape the future of banking.

What …