Not just Zuckerberg’s world: The true value of the metaverse
Angus Stevens, chair and co-founder the Australian Metaverse Advisory Council, explores how how Meta's metaverse vision has struggled with consumer adoption but thrives in enterprise applications, driving innovation in fields like training, urban planning, and digital modelling.
It was hard to escape the photo of Mark Zuckerberg from the September announcement of Orion, Meta’s augmented reality (AR) glasses. The distinctive thick black frames dominated the CEO’s face, representing millions of dollars in R&D and the next step in metaverse hardware. You can’t buy the glasses yet – they’re still too expensive for consumer-level use – but the prototype has already raised expectations regarding the future of augmented and virtual reality (VR).
The problem with Zuckerberg is that hype tends to follow his lead, sometimes to the detriment of other interesting things. A handful of years ago, during the height of the pandemic, Meta invested heavily in the metaverse, which largely featured avatars meeting in virtual spaces. It was an apt solution when isolation forced people apart physically; today, it’s populated by diehards hanging out in niche secondary worlds. Meta’s hope was that its virtual space would become an avatar-led social meeting platform that would complement its other products, namely Facebook and WhatsApp, but the space wasn’t compelling enough to encourage continual use.
What went wrong? One of the biggest misses for the metaverse was the ‘build it and they will come’ mentality. While a re-creation of ancient Greece might be a fun tourist experience, it’s unlikely to attract users again and again. Building it with a target user in mind – history teachers or budding archaeologists, perhaps – would make it a more useful virtual world. Tech companies that have built metaverse applications for specific uses, however, have seen rising opportunities across many industries.
Metaverse with a purpose
Where the metaverse thrives is in purpose-built spaces, so key value comes from creating environments that users wouldn’t usually have access to and where they can gain experience and skills in a controlled setting to then transfer into the real world. This is why the metaverse has excelled in training modules, remote collaboration spaces and educational settings.
In recent times, this has been in enterprise B2B training where companies integrate metaverse technology into their courses, tailoring it to their specific needs so that users can learn through experience. In particular, industries like healthcare, manufacturing, the service sector, and education are exploring VR environments because they help professionals gain skills by immersing them in simulations where they can practice without the physical or emotional risks of real-world scenarios.
A student speech pathologist, for example, could practice treating paediatric patients in VR. The VR experience shows them what it is like to treat children who have different levels of cooperation during a consult. In the past, lecturers would pretend to be child patients or students would need to find young patients (and their caregivers) to agree to having a student practice on them. Another module has a 3D model of an affected mouth so students can learn what to flag. These scenarios give them the confidence to consult in real-world situations.
VR has also become handy for customer service training. The MINACA (Managing Incivility, Negativity & Customer Aggression) program gives users different scenarios to manage a range of customer behaviours. This enables the trainee to practice and build skills in the virtual world without subjecting them to the emotional risk of learning on the job. According to PwC, VR trainees are four times faster to train than comparative classroom learners and 275 per cent more confident when it comes to applying skills learnt.
Jobs where practical experience is key to upskilling are also ripe for metaverse platforms: for example, sheep-shearing simulations and training can be run out of season when there are no sheep to shear (and without having to send trainees to remote locations); and showing a 3D model of a functioning air-conditioning unit is safer for HVAC students before they face the real thing.
Some of the most innovative uses of metaverse technology experiment with real-world environments or systems. Companies like Phoria create digital twins, virtual representations that allow industries to visualise and simulate concepts to be used for urban planning, environmental management, architecture and other fields that require real-time modelling. Rural skills training sees users operate a farm using virtual scenarios, which teaches them how to apply best practices to handle seasonal variability and build environmental resilience. This fast-tracks their learning through modelling.
Socialising in the metaverse
Although people will rarely socialise without a clear purpose – the most populated parts of virtual spaces are often centred on specific hobbies or interests, after all – there are some industries creating shared, gamified social environments in the metaverse to increase user engagement. The aim here is to simulate the communal experience of a live sports event, but this gamification can be compelling in fields like training, education, and even retail, fostering collaboration and learning.
The ongoing issue is how to create enough compelling content that continues to bring users back to these environments for business-related purposes.
Mass adoption of the metaverse hasn’t happened as Zuckerberg intended, but there are plenty of fields where AR and VR technology is thriving. As technology like Apple Vision Pro evolves, we will certainly see a transition to 3D environments and a move to find valuable business use cases to ensure its longevity. Without a defined purpose the consumer version of the metaverse will remain a niche gamers environment, however from an enterprise perspective it continues to deliver significant benefits increasing workforces’ speed to proficiency and generating knowledge that sticks.
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