Neutral Insights #2: Symbiotic future – sustainability and XR technology

With ESG and sustainability at the top of the agenda, companies across all sectors are considering how technology can support them in their sustainability ambitions and commitments. In this edition of Neutral Insights, we look at three use cases of immersive technology where financial and sustainability benefits go hand in hand.

Training

Training using Extended Reality (XR) technology is probably the enterprise use case with the most traction today. The business benefits are many – training more people faster and cost-effectively in a safe and controlled learning environment.

Sustainability comes into play when there are large amounts of people to be trained across multiple geographic locations. Historically, these people may have travelled to a central location to receive training. They may even have to travel numerous times. Imagine training an airline cabin crew: hundreds or even thousands of crew members worldwide. Most importantly, there is safety training, often on multiple aircraft types. New aircraft are being launched, with customised cabins and passenger experiences. Taking the training to the crew, rather than bringing them to a classroom or the aircraft, can significantly benefit the efficiency and reduce carbon footprint and waste.

Sales & Marketing

Virtual meetings have become an integral part of the sales process, accelerated by the global pandemic. Business travel remains important – nothing beats IRL interactions to build relationships – but a hybrid approach with more virtual meetings is here to stay. This is positive from a sustainability standpoint, but a different approach is needed to keep virtual meetings effective. Virtual product demonstrators, accessible via most devices, allow sales teams to tell complex product value stories more effectively and memorably, both in person and virtually.

With IRL sales and marketing events relaunching – we are reminded of the complex logistical challenges that come with these trade shows. Companies traditionally have shipped products around the world to showcase at exhibitions, which is costly and less sustainable. Many companies are turning to VR and similar immersive technologies to reduce the need to take their products to every event. It also allows them to present their products on a smaller scale and with more frequent engagements.

Product Design & Innovation

Traditional industrial design processes involve manufacturing physical prototypes with unreliable lead times. Digital Twin simulations remove the need to manufacture prototypes for minor changes and allow testing of key components before manufacturing. The design changes are made at a lower cost and with less waste. This both increases the velocity of innovation to shorten the time to market, as well as supports sustainability goals.

Collaboration is also made easier without needing to co-locate cross-departmental teams, which naturally reduces travel requirements.

Sustainability as an adoption accelerator

In summary, we are still only scratching the surface of how XR technologies will change the way we do business. However, it might be the growing urgency of the drive for sustainability that is an even greater accelerator in adopting these technologies.