One benefit of this is that citizens will no longer need to physically present themselves to access a service. So public services can become ‘Touchless’. Another is that by providing services online, governments can store and use even more data to become more ‘Smart’. In other words, they can leverage insights data in order to act faster, trigger more targeted and personalized citizen experiences, and even anticipate and pre-empt citizens’ individual needs.

Of course, this kind of digital transformation does not happen overnight; yet let’s look at the pace and scale of what happened in 2020. Many citizens shifted from five days working in the office to every day working at home. In terms of decision-making at local and national level, the public sector has already embraced digital meetings, consultations and debates and – almost overnight – decisions made in this way can be permitted and approved by law, without physical attendance. We are fast creating to a new normal that blends the physical and digital worlds. The challenge now is to find a new balance between the two as our new ‘hybrid society’ takes shape.