In the metaverse, organizations will define their own future

It is fair to say there is not a hotter topic in tech today than the metaverse.?It is a topic of conversation with nearly all of my clients.?

And what I am finding is that the metaverse means different things to different people.

Some see its obvious value in fueling next-generation immersive gaming.?Others are focused on a new digital economy where people buy, sell and own digital assets.?It's understandable that current assessments are founded in the gaming market, either with software companies such as Meta itself, and Microsoft, gaming software companies such as Unity, or hardware companies such as Oculus Rift and NVIDIA.?

With the current potential size of the metaverse quoted as being around US$824 billion, it's important to understand strategies to maximize its potential.?Even a small share of that figure equates to a large opportunity for those that capture it.?

What makes sense in the metaverse, and how should companies consider the transition to it?

What exactly might the opportunities be, and where might they be found? ?

Defining direction (both external and internal)?

It all starts with an understanding of how companies might use the metaverse to get the job done. ?

That in turn starts with the clear understanding that there is an internal aspect to this as well as the external aspect, just as there was in the early days of the Internet.

Those with long memories will recall the debate around the application of technology on intranets. We started to collaborate and share information with colleagues and, in many cases, with trusted external partners. The Internet was the external version of the same technology, where companies started to market themselves to the world, and then transact.

At the time, companies were working out what the Internet (and intranets) actually meant, how they would change internal processes, what they would allow companies to do, and so on.

Track forward about 30 years and that's where we are today when assessing the metaverse. The technology and opportunities around the metaverse are lightyears ahead of the early Internet technology, which means companies have so many more opportunities (and complexity) to consider. But conceptually, we are at the same kind of point in the evolution of the metaverse, and the next steps we all take.

Gartner predicts that possibly sooner rather than later, activities currently in siloes will eventually take place in a single Metaverse. Source: Gartner.

We're working with a number of customers on early first steps. What's interesting is that many clients are equally focused internally.?They are working on adapting internal business processes, seeking new ways to improve efficiency and deliver products, services, or support.

As an example, in the automotive space, car companies are working out that they no longer need to create 200 clay models of designs over the lifetime of a new car design project. Just two will do because the remainder can be replaced by immersive experiences, collaboration, and internal engagement between designers and engineers using the metaverse.

Lenovo is working with auto companies to introduce concepts such as being able to feel sensations such as heat, the cold, wind, and so on when wearing special 'virtual gloves'.?This haptic technology is part of meta-solutions that go so much further than goggles.?

Something similar is happening in the healthcare sector, where digital twins are being used to model and assess procedures ahead of time.?Surgeons can practice as much as they need before ever touching a living patient.

On an even broader scale, entire cities now have digital twins to improve learning, and planning, making the entire city smarter.

For me, these examples highlight what's really important about the metaverse: Having a clear definition of objectives and the ROI for an organization.

The envisioned future is possible

What companies have is a sense of what's possible because of the gaming industry. We can all see the quality of the in-game experiences and universes, yet the application of those concepts in commercial contexts is still open for companies to define. ?

Some companies are taking early first steps. European bank Santander recently hosted its awards ceremony for fintech and blockchain applications in the metaverse. Elsewhere, companies are being more circumspect, even those that believe they have cracked their internal applications.

I think the important point here is every organization can define what the metaverse means for them, and how they might create new opportunities there.?There are things that can be done today, and companies can build a metaverse around their own definitions of collaboration, R&D, and production. And there are things that can be done in near future, from AR and VR to digital twins and IoT. ?Companies can learn, refine, and change to suit their business needs around the metaverse as these become clearer.

New Partnerships, New Collaboration

The metaverse will, more than anything, be about new and changed relationships between companies, between companies and partners, between companies and employees, and between companies and customers.

It’s important to be candid about where everyone is right now in their understanding of the metaverse: There’s no doubt it’s coming for some, and already here for others, and there’s no doubt it will be a game-changer in any number of ways.

When it comes to understanding the metaverse, there's a ton of slideware out there and a great deal of information about the art of the possible, but organizations are still figuring out where the revenue streams will be in the metaverse, and how to find them in the right markets, particularly outside of consumer markets.

Because the timetable for returns is almost infinitely open-ended, many organizations share the same feeling that they are somehow behind.

Leveraging the applications of the metaverse will change across industries and individual companies. Some applications – such as training – are applicable across multiple industries, and the benefits of being able to train inside a metaverse context will undoubtedly solve many pain points, such as inclusivity & accessibility, loss of productivity, and reduced cost.

For example, metaverse avatars may replace help-desk bots. Remote visualization will be transformed when offsite colleagues join onsite colleagues in the same virtual space. Understanding where and how customers play their part, what the metaverse means for new markets, and the decisions needed to scale and commercialize, are all up for grabs.

We know the metaverse is coming, and we know it will change everything.

Everything else is a decision that any organization can make on its own terms.