Businesses and individuals have reinvigorated the debate on the value of the Metaverse, the next platform for communications. Combining the internet and spatial computing, the Metaverse has already created numerous use cases proving the emerging technology’s financial and educational benefits.
At the Enterprise Metaverse Summit in London, major big tech companies and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) opened a massive platform for discussing the future of Web 3.0 and its impact on businesses.
Alex Ruhl, Head of Metaverse, PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), spoke to XR Today on the sidelines of the event. Her work with PwC focuses on how businesses and Fortune 1000 clients can unlock the enterprise value of immersive technologies.
Ruhl’s research also aims to tackle real-world challenges increasing adoption rates for metaverse technologies across virtual reality (VR) training, virtual world building, remote collaboration spaces, and digital assets.
Four Pillars of the Enterprise Metaverse
When asked how metaverse technologies created real-world returns on investment (ROI) for enterprises, Ruhl explained that four vital pillars were key to understanding such metrics.
According to the executive, PwC’s enterprise metaverse findings involved:
- Employee experience, where such technologies aimed to revolutionise how employees engaged in the workplace
- Training to make enterprise processes more efficient and optimised
- Client experience to determine how businesses engaged with clients while builidng brands and communities on the new immersive platforms
- Metaverse adoption to measure the rate of adoption and gauge new opportunities for revenue
Speaking further on the latter point, Ruhl noted how metaverse adoption rates were increasing. For example, she cited use cases from Nike and its entry into the Web3 space with NIKELAND, which leveraged Roblox. Other use cases included Epic Games’ Fortnite, used by Timberland and many others.
The executive continued that companies such as PwC and others were using the virtual world platforms to “get the message out about some of our key propositions.”
She explained further,
“For example, we launched our public metaverse space in Decentraland. Focusing on an Environment, Safety, and Governance (ESG) experience for World Earth Day, we explored how we can bring people together and understand more about our companies in these new spaces.”
These immersive spaces were where people could “interact, become more immersive, socialise, and eventually transact, building new revenue opportunities,” Ruhl added.
Empirical Data Essential to Advancing Metaverse Technologies
When asked by XR Today why empirical data was such a significant part of creating and building the industrial metaverse, Ruhl said that they demonstrated real-world, current value for such technologies.
She explained that most people considered immersive solutions a “future technology” and saw it as “something nice to have.”
However, data from a PwC report had quantified the “actual impact” of metaverse technologies in the workforce, Ruhl said, adding the insights allowed businesses to back their investment cases with empirical data.
PwC’s report showed that VR training was roughly four times more effective, boosted employee confidence by four times, and offered a fourfold increase in learner retention compared to learning.
She explained the value of such insights,
“Now, when you start to quantify what that means in terms of financial value to a company, we should ask what it means to have fewer accidents in the workplace. What does it mean for your employees to feel better equipped to do their job correctly? Does that lead to better retention of staff and employee satisfaction? When do you start to actually quantify what the dollar value is of better training and a more immersive way?”
She added that data from PwC’s enterprise metaverse studies showed that improving remote collaboration and immersive experiences for employees backed investment cases for future metaverse tech adoption.
Ruhl concluded: “If you can prove that, within the first year, you can save your company half a million dollars, all of a sudden, it doesn’t feel so scary to invest a small amount of money in headsets, or in building applications that can scale across your organisation”
The Enterprise Metaverse Summit 2023 is taking place at the Hilton Bankside London from 28 to 29 June. At the event, nearly 300 attendees across London, 100 speakers, and 60 sessions showcased crucial topics on the Metaverse.
Hosted by The Economist’s event division, Economist Impact, The Summit explored a host of topics surrounding digital twins, the industrial metaverse, and immersive collaboration, among many others. Major tech companies such as Meta Platforms, HTC VIVE, Siemens, PwC, Deloitte, and others are attending and speaking at the event.
For more info, kindly view the Enterprise Metaverse Summit’s website.
