By Sandra James
Imagine a virtual world where billions of people live, work, shop, learn, and interact with each other, all from the comfort of their desks or couches in the physical world.
The computer screens we use today to connect to a worldwide web of information will become portals to a 3D virtual realm that mimics real life, only bigger and better.
Digital versions of ourselves, or avatars, will move freely from one experience to another, taking our identities and money with us. Fasten your seat belts as we journey through the anticipated virtual world of the metaverse and what’s to come.
Understanding the Metaverse
The metaverse could fundamentally change the way we all live, work, and play, with big implications for enterprise IT and business leaders. Right now, the metaverse is a vision of what many in the computer industry believe is the next iteration of the internet—a single, shared, immersive, persistent 3D virtual space where humans experience life in ways they couldn’t in the physical world.
However, we must remember that the metaverse is still a set of possibilities, not a reality. There are many unknowns, such as who will control it, what it will encompass, and how much of an impact it will have on our lives, which is very much up for debate.
Metaverse: Enhancing or Extending Our Lives?
At one end of the spectrum are those who believe the metaverse will enhance our lives, enabling experiences we couldn’t have in the physical world.
On the other hand, metaverse skeptics view it as merely an extension of the digital experiences we have today, but not life-changing, and that it could potentially lead to something worse, like magnifying social media ills, disinformation campaigns, addictive behavior, and tendencies toward violence.
Regardless of whether the metaverse lives up to the hype, businesses must be prepared in some ways to maneuver within the 3D virtual world or else fall drastically behind.
History and Development of the Metaverse
The metaverse became a household name when Facebook rebranded its corporate identity to Meta in October 2021 and announced plans to invest at least $10 billion in the concept.
However, work on the technologies that underpin a virtual reality-based internet dates back decades. Rather than a single shared virtual space, the current version of the metaverse is shaping up as a multiverse—a multitude of metaverses with limited ability to interoperate with each other as companies jockey for a leadership position.
Tech giants including Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Qualcomm are also investing billions of dollars in the concept.
Current Applications and Technologies
Today, companies apply the term to many different types of enhanced online environments. These range from online video games like Fortnite to fledgling virtual workplaces like Microsoft’s Mesh or Meta’s Horizon Workrooms, to virtual dressing rooms and virtual operating rooms.
Some of the technologies that provide access to this virtual world, like virtual reality headsets and augmented reality glasses, are evolving quickly.
Other critical components of the metaverse, like adequate bandwidth or interoperability standards, are probably years off or might never even materialize.
Technologies Driving the Metaverse
The two primary technologies contributing to the development and growth of today’s metaverse are virtual reality and augmented reality. Virtual reality is a simulated 3D environment in which users interact with a virtual surrounding in a way that mimics reality as perceived through our senses.
These types of environments are typically accessed through a virtual reality headset that takes over your field of vision, blocking out the real world. Haptics, including gloves, vests, and even full-body tracking suits, enable even more lifelike interaction with the virtual environment.
Augmented Reality and Its Applications
Augmented reality is less immersive than virtual reality. It doesn’t block out the real world but instead adds digital overlays on top of the real world with a lens of some type. The game Pokemon Go, Google Glass, and heads-up displays in car windshields are early examples of augmented reality.
But these technologies are only considered precursors to the metaverse. Right now, many of the metaverse-like experiences offered by gaming platforms such as Roblox, Decentraland, and Minecraft can be accessed through browsers or mobile devices and a fast internet connection.
Technological Advancements in the Metaverse
Experts generally agree that seven existing, evolving, and emerging technologies will have the biggest impact on metaverse development over the next decade:
Practical Applications of the Metaverse
The metaverse may be in its embryonic stage, but elements of it are already taking off in some ways. Companies are experimenting with metaverse applications in the workplace that build on the virtual applications they’ve used during the COVID-19 pandemic to support remote work.
To add some realism to remote work experiences, companies are setting up 3D rooms where employees can collaborate.
Some hospitals are using virtual and augmented reality to train for common medical procedures.
Future Prospects and Challenges
Soon, digital twin avatars will be rendered as AI-powered holograms or holographic images assigned tasks. CEOs, for example, could activate an AI-powered hologram of themselves to engage with multiple stakeholder groups at once.
The metaverse is coming to Microsoft Teams too. Users in different physical locations will be able to join collaborative and shared holographic experiences during virtual meetings.
For example, Accenture uses Microsoft Mesh to help onboard new employees. New hires meet on Teams to create a digital avatar and access One Accenture Park, a shared virtual space that includes a conference room, a boardroom, and digital monorails that new hires use to travel to different exhibits.
Potential Benefits and Risks
The metaverse’s possibilities, both good and bad, are unlimited. Let’s speculate about the good first. Generally, metaverse technologies could increase teleworker camaraderie, improve collaboration, speed up training, reduce the need for office space, and make work a happier place.
Everyone will have equal access to lifelike, otherwise unattainable experiences in their own environments, like venturing into outer space or climbing the Himalayas. People will be able to interact using more accurate virtual representations of physical objects as if they’re real.
Pitfalls and Considerations
Take car shopping, for instance. In the metaverse, you’d be able to scope out a vehicle in a fully immersive spatial web. Family and friends can share virtual experiences in real-time as if they’re all together in the same living room.
Metaverse video conferencing might look like avatars gathering into smaller groups, like what naturally happens in face-to-face social gatherings. Work colleagues will be able to collaborate and co-create as if they’re all together in the same place.
Conclusion: Preparing for a Metaverse Future
Keep in mind, though, that creating successful metaverse work environments will require far more than grafting existing office spaces and protocols into a 3D virtual equivalent. Worker productivity in a metaverse world could suffer.
Some people are more susceptible to motion sickness and could become nauseous with a virtual environment, while individuals with auditory or visual disabilities may have difficulties in the metaverse.
Like almost any technology, the metaverse will eliminate jobs and require companies to reskill workers and invest in new equipment and technologies, which can be cost-prohibitive.
Negative behavior is just as much a concern in the metaverse as it is in the real world, raising issues about metaverse policies and standards.
Sadly, just like with video games, those looking to escape everyday life may become addicted to the metaverse and lose the ability to discern reality from virtual reality.
Privacy vs. Security
Finally, introducing new devices into the metaverse will raise security concerns and create potential points of compromise.
Businesses need to consider the level of anonymity allowed, where data will be collected, how much government control there will be, and how they’ll secure devices like VR headsets.
Management consultancy McKinsey and Company boldly predicted that the metaverse economy could reach $5 trillion by 2030. Yes, that’s five trillion dollars.
E-commerce is expected to be the driving force, with gaming, entertainment, education, and marketing in the metaverse also becoming important sectors.
Uncertainty and potential backlash
The combination of uncritical enthusiasm for the metaverse and deep uncertainty about how it will pan out has sparked some backlash.
But others argue that even though it’s early days for the metaverse and fundamental technical barriers still exist, the metaverse will happen, and it will arrive with a big bang that businesses need to be ready for.
Business owners looking to be prepared for what the metaverse will bring, reach out to us today!
