The boom in AI has virtually eclipsed technologies like augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). Nevertheless, there are still good reasons to keep AR and VR on the IT strategic roadmap.
AR is so named because it can embellish the physical world with digital artifacts. VR goes one step further by immersing participants in an alternate world of virtual experience.
There are a number of AR/VR use cases that are working in business.
The retail and real estate industries use AR and VR technologies to give customers a preview of how a household item would look in their home. It also can give would-be buyers a virtual walkthrough of a vacation home that they are considering purchasing that is thousands of miles away.
Building engineers and inspectors use AR with the help of special glasses that display blueprints of electrical wiring that they can superimpose upon a finished wall in a structure; the military uses VR to simulate battlefield scenes for trainees; and baseball players use AR/VR to improve the mechanics of their swings.
The CIO’s Position on AR/VR Today
For CIOs, AR/VR is taking a backseat to artificial intelligence, which Statista sees as exceeding $1.8 trillion in business investment by 2030. Consequently, there is little left in most IT budgets for anything else.
CIOs also know that most AR/VR investments can’t be done “on the cheap”. AR/ VR implementations often require significant customization to achieve the right fit for specific business cases, and they can require expensive investments in headgear, workstations and other hardware.
Finally, it’s not always easy to justify an AR/VR investment. While an AR/VR investment might be close to mandatory when the military is training personnel to disarm bombs on a battlefield, it’s not that easy to justify AR/VR simulations for more mundane use cases.
Collectively, these circumstances have put AR/VR on the IT back burner, but it doesn’t mean that they don’t deserve a spot on IT’s strategic roadmap.
Where AR and VR Could Play in a Business
Adecco, a corporate recruiter, reported in 2023 that “92% of executives think that American workers aren’t as skilled as they need to be”. And the World Economic Forum expects that 39% of skills will be outdated by 2030. At the same time, younger employees entering the workforce are less likely to learn by reading manuals, and more likely to further their learning through AR, VR and other visual technologies.
This makes workforce education a prime area for AR/VR utilization. In addition, many of the skills that must be learned by employees across a wide swath of industries are somewhat generic (for example, the basics of lending for a financial institution, or the fundamentals of waste management and collection for sanitation workers). So, it is possible that more generic and cost-effective AR/VR offerings can be used without much need for company-specific customization.
Schools are already integrating AR/VR into their curricula, and there is no reason that companies can’t do the same to help address their employee skills shortages.
Another AR/VR use case that has been used successfully is in retail sales where AR/VR can simulate product experiences in a virtual environment. With AR/VR, a prospect can “experience” what a trip to Belize would be like or do a visual walkthrough of a beach home in Miami. A customer can “try on” a sweater virtually, or they can see how a new dining room table looks like in their home.
All these examples are already in play and generating revenue in e-commerce markets, where it is important for customers to experience what it would be like to own or experience something that they can’t physically see or touch. The value proposition for using AR/VR in retail is further sweetened because companies don’t have to invest in special hardware. Instead, customers can use the AR/VR on regular home computers and mobile devices.
New product development is one more area where companies are adopting AR/VR. Constructing physical prototypes of new products that may not work is expensive and time-consuming. If new product designs and simulations can be generated with 3D modeling and AR/VR, the technology investment may be worth it.
AR/VR Trends
Looking forward, it is reasonable to expect that AR/VR use will expand in the areas where it is already gaining a footing: education/training, retail sales and product development.
Also, there are three AR/VR trends that CIOs should note:
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Cloud-based AR/VR. A user can put on a wireless headset and use AR/VR from the cloud if the computing requirements for the app aren’t overly intensive. Education and training AR/VR in most cases would work in this scenario, although there might be a need to invest in more bandwidth.
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Better ergonomic experiences for users. AR/VR headgear is clunky and uncomfortable. Vendors know this and are at work at creating more wearable and “tetherless” headsets that deliver a better ergonomic experience to users. That lighter, more agile hardware could also lead to lower costs.
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A focus on security and governance. AR/VR vendors haven’t paid much attention to security and governance in the past, but they will in the future because enterprise customers will demand it, and the enterprise market is too big to ignore.
Wrap-Up
While AR/VR technology isn’t front-and-center in technology discussions today, it could emerge in the future as a way for companies to streamline education and training, improve new product development and times to market, grow retail revenues, and even simulate scenarios. For example, it could be used for a disaster recovery operational failover in a simulated scenario.
AR/VR are not today’s hot technologies, but they should nonetheless be listed in IT strategic plans, because they are logical extensions of more corporate virtualization. Plus, they can address several of the persistent pain points that companies continue to grapple with.