The Metaverse is seen in the technology industry as the next level in internet interaction, where the user becomes an active agent in all senses. This is because, instead of being in front of a screen, the process becomes immersive in a shared three-dimensional space where it is possible to live experiences that would not be possible in the physical world.
This immersion is made using technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) glasses. The metaverse concept has been introduced previously, first implemented in the book Snow Crash by author Neal Stephenson. Although it emerged as a technology aimed at entertainment and business, the Metaverse is being studied by companies for internal use, and its impacts on technology are beginning to generate interest and investment.
In this post, we will understand what Metaverse is, its importance, and its impact on corporate technology. Check out!
As we saw in the introduction, the term metaverse is not new; it is already over 30 years old. However, the worldwide repercussions happened in October 2021, when Mark Zuckerberg announced that the Facebook group had changed its visual and corporate identity to Goal.
Other technology giants, such as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, are investing heavily, exploring all metaverse possibilities. The expectation is that this virtual world will be marked by a digital market in which it will be possible to create, buy, sell, and play from 100% electronic commerce, emphasizing entertainment, marketing, and education.
Now that we understand what the Metaverse is and the opportunities that this concept can bring to people and companies, let’s get to the main point of our post: The impacts of the Metaverse on technology in the corporate concept. In the lines below, we highlight the main ones. Check out!
Technology allows people in different countries to work together in the same company, developing important projects. As much as videoconferencing tools and cloud integration software make this work more fluid and keep the team in permanent contact, the immersion of the Metaverse can take this integration to another level.
This is because technology will allow employees to be virtually in the same room, interacting in a more organized way than it would be when sharing screens.
A development team, for example, can work in a virtual office, with collaborators able to see each other’s screens, that is, an interaction much closer to real life.
Tests can be done in a more immersive way; after all, if you are designing a game, instead of seeing it on the screen, you will be able to see the result in front of you — if you are creating a character, you will be able to see it in 3D in front of you, you can rotate, touch, modify, in the most realistic way possible.
If we think of the automotive industry, the prototypes can be analyzed and evaluated in a realistic simulation environment, with people seeing the car up close, being able to enter it, and doing the speed and impact tests most realistically, with much lower cost.
To assess operations, executives at companies with many branches have to travel to each plant and check it out in person. With the Metaverse, they can travel to the other side of the world and visit construction sites, power plants, and offices using augmented reality. In addition to assessing the current state, you can simulate the possible impacts of changes, communicating immersively with local collaborators.
With current technology, we already have very easy access to knowledge, thanks to the huge amount of online courses for all areas of knowledge. But our learning experience on the internet is still restricted to screens. In Metaverse, when the company wants to qualify its team, it can do so in an immersive way through interactive gameplay and realistic simulations.
For example, employees can operate a machine as if they were doing it in real life or practice a sales presentation for a client in an environment that simulates the meeting room or auditorium. Instead of a professional having to read a manual to learn how to operate a machine, he will learn by operating it in the Metaverse, that is, accelerating learning.
Office operating costs — rent, electricity, internet, water, equipment maintenance, and furniture — can become a major obstacle for young entrepreneurs, who need more margin to grow.
Nowadays, it is already possible to work with a large part of the workforce at the home office, but many managers believe that this distancing can harm the employee’s sense of belonging to the company and reduce the proximity between the teams. They believe that if you don’t live with each other daily, the connection becomes less intense, harming harmony.
The Metaverse, by placing people in the same virtual environment, will allow this daily coexistence in a more fluid way than it is today, with each one looking at their screen.
We must remember that the Metaverse is a developing technology, which needs a robust infrastructure to support it, both in terms of software, hardware, and networks. The bandwidth capacity to handle all this traffic is something telcos must develop.
With current technology, there are some anatomical and ergonomic problems regarding the Metaverse. Many people still can’t spend a long time using virtual reality glasses and complain of nausea, eye fatigue, and even frustration about expectations. This indicates that there is still a way to go regarding access forms.
After reading this post, we hope that you have understood what Metaverse is and the impacts this concept will have on technology. We will disrupt how parts buy, play, study, and work when implemented.
Also Read: Virtual Reality And the Metaverse: How Tech Trends Arrive Early In Companies