Digitalization of the retail industry has transformed how brands must account for customer experiences. Many consumers have been purchasing from retailers that allow them to virtually “try on” beauty and fashion products or see how a product looks in their living spaces. Extended Reality (XR)—including Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)—is the key enabler of these immersive and highly personalized shopping experiences. With 2 out of 3 consumers interested in using AR for shopping, retailers cannot ignore the appetite for XR-supported e-commerce. Additionally, and as will be pointed out later, XR can enrich in-store shopping as well.
Working in a competitive industry demands that you become a data-driven organization. As a technology solution provider, effectively leveraging data can unlock significant advantages, such as driving market expansion and fostering innovation. Unfortunately, all too many companies lack an analytical approach to decision-making.
Gaming and social media are most often associated with the term metaverse, but other applications—notably Extended Reality (XR) in the enterprise—have been leading in the XR market. Digital twins, simulation tools, edge and cloud computing, and professional services/platforms lay the groundwork for future metaverse use cases. This blog post will review these technological underpinnings and discuss the key applications already being used today across industries.
While ABI Research has been directly covering the metaverse for a couple years now, our coverage of the underlying technologies and markets stretches further back—research into Extended Reality (XR), for example, started in 2015. The metaverse is a confluence of markets and technologies that bring together the virtual and real worlds, and despite building upon many pre-existing trends, is still very much in its infancy. There are technological developments and standards that must be addressed, as well as education, before widespread adoption of immersive technologies will occur. Whether it’s for entertainment purposes or to provide business value, there are many ways to leverage the metaverse. As momentum continues to develop for immersive technologies, here are some of the most beneficial metaverse use cases and applications for various industries.
Market research goes hand-in-hand with maximizing profits at a business enterprise. Whether you’re a vendor or an enterprise implementer of a new technology, in-depth, data-backed intelligence can safely guide your organization toward sustained success. Technology research deliverables identify potential roadblocks and lucrative revenue opportunities for organizations, while giving you a reliable partner to consult with when questions about your respective market inevitably arise. Take, for example, the technology market research case studies we recently compiled, showcasing how our forward-looking methodologies help some of our biggest clients with their digitization journeys. In this blog post, let’s review four of these case studies to give you a better idea of what kind of results you can expect from ABI Research as a technology intelligence partner.
Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI more broadly, has launched a new technology hype cycle that, on the surface, appears to have rather unceremoniously ended during the previous metaverse hype cycle. AI, however, is a critical enabling technology of a future metaverse, from networking to data/workflow management and content creation. AI should not be viewed as a “metaverse replacement,” but rather as a critical pillar of that future, regardless of what that future is called; metaverse is simply a convenient term to codify pre-existing trends with a vision of the future.
In the technology space, it’s vital that your organization stay on top of prevailing trends in your respective industry. This extends to keeping tabs on the competition or, if you’re seeking a solution provider, weighing your options. That’s why ABI Research released its 40 Technology Companies To Watch In 2023 whitepaper to better understand which tech firms are winning in terms of innovation and implementation of their technology products/software.
More than 50,000 technology innovators and decision makers rely on ABI Research for deep insight and analysis of transformational technologies and key markets. In addition, we also provide an impartial and expert perspective on the companies that are shaping these technologies and industries.
Momentum for the metaverse continues to grow. A recent article on hospitalitynet cited some interesting survey results. The findings indicated that 82% of U.S. enterprise executives expect to incorporate metaverse applications into their business activities and plans within the next three years, while half of consumers feel excited about this virtual space. The opportunities are extensive, for everything from gaming to e-commerce, and from industrial digital twins to customer care. To make these immersive experiences all possible, there are six underlying technology pillars powering the metaverse: