The Metaverse
What is it and what does it mean for your business?
What is the Metaverse?
Rather than being a technology itself, the Metaverse can be understood as a combinational technology including AI, immersive computing, advanced connectivity and elements of Web3 like blockchain. Their convergence marks the next evolution of today's mobile Internet.
This "unflattening" of the Internet brings with it
- collaborative, interoperable digital worlds
- combined digital and real-life experiences with the sense of presence - independent of place, time or device
- transformed interaction with the physical and digital world
- changes to the way we virtually interact, exchange, solve problems and collaborate with each other
- an independent virtual economy.
How does the Metaverse create value?
To understand its potential for value creation, it helps to distinguish the following three manifestations of the Metaverse
- Consumer Metaverse: Driven by consumer utility and reliant on trends and network effects its main use cases revolve around gaming, shopping, socializing and entertainment.
- Enterprise Metaverse: Enables immersive business collaboration, productivity tools & virtual workspaces with its adoption dependent on business value as well as solution and device innovation. It's used mostly for marketing, sales, collaboration, training or recruiting and onboarding.
- Industrial Metaverse: Driven by the desire for operational results and industrial automation it focuses on simulated complex systems, enabling real-world problem-solving. Typical use cases include field XR, remote maintenance and digital twins.
Characteristics of the Metaverse
- more spatial
- more immersive
- more interactive
- more connected
Can the Metaverse create value already today?
Thanks to the continuous development of hard- and software as well as network services, the full potential of the Metaverse will be soon revealed. However, the current state is already advanced enough for organizations to actively use it. The benefits speak for themselves.
From a business viewpoint, the Metaverse pays off on many strategic and operational dimensions, such as global reach and expansion, customer (service) experience, productivity and cost savings, new revenue streams and business models, remote collaboration, skill training, talent acquisition and people development. That is why early adopters and Metaverse pioneers will gain significant competitive advantage over their competitors.
From a social perspective, the Metaverse will play a central role in the ESG agendas and enable leaders to meet their ESG targets even faster. In fact, the Metaverse pays off on many of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It helps to save and conserve natural resources as well as to reduce the global carbon footprint of humankind, e.g. by using digital spaces for conducting meetings, events and transactions.
The Metaverse has also democratized education, enabling global learners to access immersive and tailored learning experiences. By offering dynamic simulations, expert collaborations, and experiential learning, it enriches education's depth and fosters a deeper understanding of complex subjects.
Hear from our clients
I can well imagine that the Metaverse will take a definite place between the physical meeting and the traditional video conference.
It was the first hands-on experience for my international Corporate Leadership Team. I especially liked the 3D visual and sound immersion, which gave us the feeling of being much closer than in any MS Teams meeting.
It was really cool to dive into the world of Metaverse collaboration with the Dimenteers! I can definitely see use cases for it in the future.
How can you unlock value in the Metaverse?
As a Leadership Team
Leadership teams should ask themselves not if, but why the metaverse fits into their growth and innovation agenda. They should also start experimenting and exploring use cases. This will help them to build the necessary future skills in their organizations as well as to gain a competitive advantage over competitors.
As a HR Leader
In the wake of the current people challenges, the Metaverse offers manifold solutions and benefits across the HR value chain: from recruitment and onboarding to training and cultural development e.g. with respect to collaboration - creating more meaningful remote connection than ever before.
