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Meta questions major industry end users to find out how they are using immersive solutions
Published: September 6, 2023
Rory Greener
Meta recently released its VR for Work report, highlighting how leading worldwide firms leverage XR across various use cases.
The report notes how firms such as Coca-Cola and Ford Motor Company use XR in the workplace, leading to improved workplace and ROI outcomes.
Meta is building up towards its Connect event later this month. However, audiences do not expect the Menlo Park firm to announce many enterprise XR solutions, with Meta outlining that the Connect event will focus on consumer and gaming use cases.
But Meta’s recent VR for Work report highlights how, despite the poor adoptions of the firm’s immersive enterprise solutions, such as Quest Pro, the firm is deeply involved in enterprise-grade XR research and development.
According to Meta, following conversations with businesses using XR, there exist five core benefits that its questioned end-users often noted.
Meta found the first common benefit among enterprise end-users was employees feeling present during digital meetings and collaboration procedures.
Meta says that some of its questioned firms reported that workers feel a significant increase in levels of immersion while working in a virtual environment.
The Menlo Park-based firm also found that end-users experienced more natural digital conversations during virtual meetings. Thanks to avatar technology, employees can represent themselves in 3D with avatar systems, some of which track body, eye, and hand movements.
Avatar technologies work to improve communication on immersive platforms. Theoretically, avatars push digital communications beyond 2D webcam feeds, allowing coworkers to pick up on non-verbal communication.
Moreover, Meta explained that its questioned firms experience fewer distractions during virtual meetings in comparison to conventional digital calls.
The firm also notes how immersive meeting platforms remove distractions such as turning a webcam off and browsing extra tabs. However, this opinion may change with AR and MR spatial computing environments that promote multiple applications simultaneously.
Meta also reported higher levels of convenience across workers who use improved and customizable virtual workspaces.
Finally, Meta notes that XR leads to better outcomes. Many XR vendors believe the technology will improve ROI in many business areas, whether it’s productivity, effectiveness, or sustainability goals.
Moreover, as part of its report, Meta highlighted a shortlist of leading use cases proving XR’s effectiveness in the workplace to decision-makers, investors, workers, and business leaders.
A successful application of enterprise-grade XR rides on the effectiveness of the chosen use case or pilot programme.
Some use cases appear more applicable to XR at the moment, but as XR succeeds in today’s use cases, it may help optimize the technology for tomorrow’s emerging use cases.
XR is changing how companies design everyday products. Companies can use integrated XR technology, such as digital twins, to improve design workflows by making teams more agile, lowering costs, getting different perspectives, and eliminating silos.
XR allows designers to skip traditional 2D processes and design directly in 3D, which can help them get ideas to the shelf or showroom faster.
Immersive technology can also lower costs by allowing designer teams to handle, manipulate, and stress-test new products without investing in physical equipment, ramping production capacity, or forcing decision-making to travel.
XR helps designer teams get different perspectives on their designs by allowing various company officials to review a design stage without leaving their real-world location, making it easier for anyone to offer constructive feedback.
Finally, XR can help eliminate silos by creating a collaborative environment where designers from different departments can work together. As mentioned, XR allows decision-makers and clients worldwide to collaborate over a digital twin of an upcoming product. Additionally, detail-rich digital twins can represent complex mechanics and internal parts, allowing for highly detailed views of all aspects of a product.
The Ford Motor Company and PepsiCo are examples of companies using XR to improve their design processes. Ford used VR to accelerate the development of new vehicle models, and PepsiCo used immersive solutions to redesign its two-litre bottles. In both cases, VR helped the companies to save time and money and to create more user-friendly products.
VR can also mitigate risk in training by simulating difficult and dangerous scenarios accurately and safely. This can help train people in high-risk industries like healthcare, manufacturing, and construction. – such as surgeons on procedures, factory workers on machinery, and firefighters on emergency responses.
Moreover, for training scenarios, environments that cause large-scale public disruption – like an airport or highway maintenance training procedure – VR can accurately simulate these disruptive situations with further refinement options such as weather, lighting, and steps.
VR can also increase engagement and knowledge retention in training by providing an immersive and hands-on experience. Therefore, XR can help learners gain crucial training information more effectively by making the material more relevant and memorable. Additionally, enterprise XR solutions can provide personalized feedback, which can help people learn from their mistakes.
Finally, VR can be better for the environment than traditional training methods as it can deliver training remotely, which reduces the need for travel. Additionally, VR training environments can reduce the need for consumable training materials, reducing waste.
XR can improve meetings by making people feel closer together despite location barriers, making sessions more flexible and reducing costs.
VR can bring distant coworkers together in an age where hybrid working methods are increasing. By using the technology mentioned above, such as expressive avatars and spatial audio, Meta says that coworkers can feel more present and connected, making meetings more natural and improving teamwork productivity.
Enterprise end-users can also use an enterprise-grade XR meeting application to create bespoke virtual business spaces.
Users can start customizing the virtual office to suit specific tasks; for example, a VR meeting can be set up on a virtual whiteboard so everyone can brainstorm ideas. XR can also, again, reduce costs by eliminating the need for physical meeting spaces and travel.
Meta is highlighting XR workplace use cases as the Menlo Park-based firm works towards its online Connect showcase, due to take place later this month, September 27 – 28, 2023, as a virtual showcase for users to watch via Facebook and Horizon Worlds.
The Menlo Park-based firm will also host part of the event in person at its HQ, allowing audiences to get hands-on with their immersive portfolio – including the Quest portfolio, Ray-Ban Stories, Avatars, and Horizon Worlds.
Meta will provide attendees with an in-depth look at upcoming Meta XR products, Horizon Worlds’ metaverse developments, emerging AI innovations, and hands-on opportunities for the company’s forthcoming immersive product portfolio. Additionally, the event will host sessions, allowing attendees to learn from Meta’s community of developers, builders, and creators.
Meta Connect day one will start with a keynote with CEO Mark Zuckerberg and a “Developer State of the Union.” Historically, these sessions hosted ground-breaking news, such as the firm’s rebranding. Meanwhile, day two will feature developer sessions and product sneak peeks – most likely showing off the upcoming Meta Quest 3 MR device.
Meta’s MR product looks to compete with other MR products from firms such as Apple, Varjo, HTC Vive, Nreal, Samsung, and Google. The Menlo Park-based firm looks to get ahead of the pack with its competitive Quest 3 features, including Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+ chipset, 128GB of storage, 2 hours of battery life, room for prescription glasses, hand-tracking, eye-tracking, and a 100-degree FOV.
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