How Is the Metaverse Going to affect your practice?

The new buzzword around town is "metaverse." But what does that mean for your design or AEC practice? Is it just something that social media companies need to be concerned about?

According to people like Apple's CEO Tim Cook, the metaverse is coming. He stated that "Life without AR will soon be unthinkable." So companies need to be ready, whether that's a short-term or long-off prediction.

First comes the understanding of what the metaverse is. Metaverse is a general term – hence why it's not capitalised like a proper name. The metaverse refers to a collective upgrade of the internet to a 3D virtual environment, a world interconnected between various sites. These sites would reflect the immersive games that you see today.

Did Facebook/Meta invent the metaverse? No.
The idea of connected 3D immersive worlds has been around for decades, with several online gaming companies staking territory in the metaverse.

What's one of the best representations of the early metaverse? It's a short-lived software called Adobe Atmosphere. This 3D immersive experience included interconnected online worlds. It also gave people the ability to chat with others. It was a bit before its time, but it shows how the metaverse concept has been around for a while.

The metaverse is getting attention now because technology has advanced. It has begun to catch up to the needs of such a world, including fast internet connections and immense processing power. It also includes a delivery method for 3D that works on most PCs.

Are we there yet? Not quite. But the metaverse is picking up steam. Recently, Microsoft announced a partnership with Meta. This partnership is to bring Microsoft 365 apps into the metaverse - collaboration in an entirely new way. Microsoft notes that 50% of Gen Z and millennials expect to do some of their work in the metaverse in the next two years.

Image source: Microsoft

How Does the Metaverse Impact Your Company?

With companies like Microsoft looking at the future of AR/VR, it could be a reality soon. You can expect the metaverse to touch your practice in some way in the next few years. Here's a preview of what it may impact.

Where to Advertise

When the internet was first introduced, companies didn't immediately realise its potential. Now, most companies would only consider operating with a website a necessity for driving leads and showcasing your practice.

If the metaverse takes off as a new 3D iteration of the internet, it could be as important, essentially exploring metaverse-type advertising in virtual worlds. Also, potentially creating your own VR site or showroom.

How to Service clients

As the popularity of social media took off, practices realised clients used it to reach out. Seventy-nine per cent of consumers expect companies to respond to a social media message, and they expect that response within a day.

To address that need, many practices have a social media presence. They use this for marketing and to answer questions and inquiries from client.

The metaverse may be the next step. People will expect to interact with practices in that space if they begin hanging out there, just like they do now with social networks. 

Practices must know how clients may use the metaverse as it grows. Adding a question about metaverse use to a year-end client survey could be a way to be proactive on this topic.

Employee Training

A touted benefit of the metaverse is its ability to enable more immersive training, which could significantly increase training capabilities for everyone from doctors to forklift operators.

Imagine being able to replicate a task more closely in a virtual world. A person could safely make mistakes there. Then they could grow proficient before doing that thing in real life.

Start thinking about the types of training that your employees need. Then, look at ways a VR world may make the training safer or more efficient. The metaverse may not have what you're looking for right now, but with the pace of technological advancement, it could in a year or two. 

More Immersive Remote Team Collaboration

Virtual meetings skyrocketed out of necessity during the pandemic. Now, meeting by Teams or Zoom is commonplace. The next generation of online team meetings may end up in a virtual world.

As we noted earlier, Microsoft is already working on bringing its apps into a virtual space. Add a few avatars and an immersive setting. Suddenly, you have a completely different meeting experience.

What's one more way to enhance remote team collaboration in the metaverse? It has to do with building design and maintenance. Imagine walking through a 3D recreation of a space before it's built and then fine-tuning the construction from the inside.

Is Your Practice Ready for the Next Digital Transformation?

What are your digital transformation plans for the next 12 months? The next three years? If you need help figuring out where to begin, we can help. Contact us today to schedule a technology brainstorming session.

Article used with permission from The Technology Press.