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What does XR mean for Enterprise?

You have probably heard about “Extended Reality”, but let me tell you how it changes the way we work, learn, shop and share ideas.

You have probably been hearing about “Extended Reality”for a while and how the future will to look completely different with this technology. But “the future” is here and it is not mainstream yet.

Science fiction movies have been inflating users’ expectations with these type of technologies for the past 40 years. If you mention Augmented Reality to an average user, they will usually think about Iron Man, Minority Report or maybe about one of the latest Steven Spielberg movies: Ready Player One.

In 5-10 years we might be able to get those experiences as technologies and hardware capabilities evolve. But we are not there yet and this situation is setting unrealistic expectations.

However, this does not mean that XR can’t create value now.
Let’s understand what these technologies are.

Extended Reality is the umbrella term for referring to immersive technologies including from Virtual Reality(VR) and Augmented Reality(AR) to Mixed Reality (MR):

Inside each concept, there is much more going on when other variables like devices, wearables, sensors, haptics or display medium come into place.

These technologies are usually powered by artificial intelligence (AI), connected to the Internet of Things (IoT), and delivered through the cloud and integrated into systems.

They have been going on since the 30s and in the past 10 years we have seen a burst of them. In 2013, Palmer Lucky announced the first Oculus Device and a year and a half later, Facebook was buying Oculus for US$2 billion and has kept buying and investing in VR since.

In 2018, these technologies were on the curve of the wave. Gartner Hype Cycle methodology gives a view of how a technology or application will evolve over time, providing a sound source of insight to manage its deployment within the context of specific business goals.

In the Gartner hype cycle of 2019 these technologies were no longer there, which means that there is sufficient maturity in the market for these technologies and mature products can be developed.

In this context, XR use cases can be clustered into how they change the way we:

The average person will spend 90,000 hours at work over a lifetime so it is natural to find ways to optimize this fact and make it more efficient while making it easier.

Two typical use cases to implement XR are Asset Management and Remote Expert Assistant.

In asset management: from distribution to wealth management, data visualization can easier to users through the power of AR, boosting decision-making processes, decreasing the time where users are checking data from different sources or using paper and making users identify correlations more easily.

As for remote expert assistant: it gives a person the ability to see what another person is seeing in real time without physically being there. This enables the remote person to support, supervise, or monitor the activity. Through AR annotations, a remote expert can guide the field agent through a repair process and can even fix the final users machines without having the expert on site.

This support can even be empowered through AI. Systems can be trained to recognize images and object markers, analyze them, give instructions in real time and display in 3D how the expert/user needs to proceed.

Training and investment in developing a ‘skills building culture’ dramatically impacts employee retention. The way it is delivered has an impact on how much information people can retain.

Immersive experiences have demonstrated that XR learners are keener to retain the information and confident in applying what they are taught.

The British Army is already using VR in defence and security to improve the soldiers and officer’s training, through the simulation of missions, among others.

This is not only more productive but cost-effective.

Training for high risk jobs such as in electrical or fire, can not only be costly but also dangerous. Through virtual reality, the “danger” component dissapears while keeping the impact of the practical experience.

Related with how it changes the way we work, traditional learning sometimes entailed shadowing an expert, which probably will affect the productive time of the expert. Through virtual reality training or remote support, training new employee can be simulated with a shadowing experience.

This will have an impact on how brands express themselves digitally, but the biggest changes will come on how users digitally interact with the product and shopping experience itself.

Through a 3D representation of the product in AR or VR, the customer can experience the product without having to move. This will speed up the customers’ decision making process and differentiate vendors who have these capabilities. Real-time product personalization will also be a key capability here.

In-store experiences will also change. Stores are usually overcrowded and the store staff can’t reach to attend all customers on their decisions. Showing the product and its features will allow retailers to save display space and time, while giving the client a personalized attention experience.

For companies, this will bring new challenges on topics ranging from the brand incarnation on a XR avatar, to how they define their experience strategy.

Remote collaborations have become a key to our daily life. Tools such as Webex, Zoom or Teams have exponentially increased their use due to the pandemic. While cameras can help us feel closer, we have lost a lot of non-verbal communication, which is 70% of every communication.

In this sense, XR can build these needed bridges and help us connect, interact and feel closer to our colleagues.

XR collaboration tools are not only used to connect as a way of entertainment or socialization but also as a way to work: companies are implementing this as a way to remotely collaborate and share. Some companies are implementing digital design in their daily tasks and apps like Gravity Sketch, which can boost the 3D product design process, modelling, collaboration and review.

The big boost on XR is primarily due to the gaming industry. In VR, it feels like a natural evolution of games as it is produced with tools originally used in game development (such as Unity or Unreal Engine).

This is not only in USA, Asia or Innovation labs, this affects to companies all around the world.

According to IDC 2020 Spending Guide, “Worldwide spending on augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) is forecast to accelerate out of the pandemic, growing from just over $12.0 billion this year to $72.8 billion in 2024”.

The commercial use cases forecasted to receive the largest investments in 2024 are training ($4.1 billion), industrial maintenance ($4.1 billion), and retail showcasing ($2.7 billion). In comparison, the three consumer use cases for AR/VR (VR gaming, VR video/feature viewing, and AR gaming) are expected to see a combined spending of $17.6 billion in 2024.

And you could expect the following benefits:

IBM core capabilities fuel XR experiences. Because we leverage the full power of IBM we are uniquely positioned to deliver extended reality solutions for Enterprise, powered by Cognitive, connected with IoT, informed by the Blockchain, hosted on the cloud and integrated in systems.

Not only that, but IBM iX has the technologies and experience to help enterprises plan, deliver and scale XR across business divisions from field services to sales and operations.

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