The Future of the Metaverse and Extended Reality

Reality, as we know it and have known it for some time, is changing in bold, exciting new ways. Revolutionary technology is pushing the physical world that we inhabit day in, day out, past the limits of space and time.

We’re talking about Extended Reality (XR): fascinating technologies coming together to shape the metaverse of the future, bringing users a vast interconnected world boasting superb 3D visuals and realistic experiences. It incorporates virtual and augmented reality, blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and artificial intelligence. And it’s set to transform the way in which we live, spend time with other people, and work.

The exciting potential of XR is causing experts to explore possibilities that were once the stuff of sci-fi, but are now within reach thanks to the metaverse. Future humans could spend more of their time within the metaverse than the real world by 2030, represented by an avatar of their own making. Users will apply for work, build careers, hang out with friends and family, buy goods, and even marry partners in realistic virtual worlds.

In the near future, career training, higher education, and business meetings are likely to take place in virtual environments. Companies and governments will leverage the metaverse’s global reach and power for sharing information, delivering services, and collaborating with others.

The traditional workplace may fade away and be replaced by new metaverse-based settings. It’s likely that work will involve technologies designed to facilitate innovative interfaces and virtual interactions with people all over the world. The latest devices will allow you to create connections and use 3D tools or objects within a realistic virtual environment.

Brain computer interfaces (BCIs) are expected to emerge by 2030, allowing for the tracking, recording, and sharing of our thoughts. Thanks to this extraordinary XR technology, we will be able to experience events and memories from other people’s lives. Additionally, synthetic data created in simulated worlds could help robots solve problems so effectively that they can take over high-risk tasks from humans.

With technology advancing and converging to bring us more convincing virtual environments than ever, it’s fair to say that the industry has reached an inflection point. More businesses are discovering the sheer amount of opportunities being created, which is driving increases in technological advancement and investment.

The Horizontal Nature of Reality

When describing virtual reality’s future, we can refer to it as horizontal. Why? Because VR, AI, AR, blockchain, and other growing types of technology are being built to work with and alongside one another, paving the way for a tech ecosystem suitable for numerous virtual environments. This ecosystem won’t be dominated by just one technology, and those innovations and players likely to increase the metaverse’s capabilities have yet to appear.

Within the next five years, companies and consumers alike are predicted to embrace VR platforms and tools, with potentially millions upon millions of products likely to be purchased. Those devices could end up becoming more pervasive than mobile phones by the close of the decade.

With access to the metaverse growing increasingly universal, businesses are already designing both niche and all-inclusive innovations to suit a broad scope of users. The wide range of emerging capabilities could be important for overcoming economic and social obstacles standing in the way of progress. Such as? Economic inequalities and gender pay gaps are just two common barriers.

The metaverse’s reach and potential power could possibly remove a lot of the limitations and biases people live with today. And as the metaverse’s extensive horizontal reach starts to transform many of our life experiences, it’s high time that companies consider their part in this tech revolution.

We’re not just talking about the most obvious aspects, such as that interactions could all occur in the metaverse. We’re talking about XR-based transactions increasing in number, potentially allowing businesses to explore fresh value propositions.

Those early adopters may have a big advantage, so it’s vital that companies weigh their options and experiment as technological change moves faster and faster.

A Fresh Landscape of Opportunities for Success and Challenges to Overcome in the Future of the Metaverse

There is no question that the metaverse has the potential to make a massive impact on our lives, but access is still an issue. Building content that can be described as truly immersive is tough, and the XR technologies (hardware and software) available today can present difficulties for both early adopters and new users. Still, barriers to access are likely to be removed within a short space of time.

As the growth of virtual technologies is increasing, the present acceleration of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and platforms based on blockchain tech (including DecentWorld, Decentraland and The Sandbox) are encouraging people to step into virtual worlds for the first time.

Basically, NFTs are a community-aggregation mechanism. That means that businesses should understand the expanding NFT field and come up with a stable strategy around building and managing a community. For instance, universities may harness its capabilities to connect students from across the globe and promote collaboration within virtual ecosystems.

Ultimately, company leaders must understand how their businesses need to adapt to changes and keep evolving as the metaverse reconfigures the way we live and work.

Safety in the Metaverse: Future Privacy and Security Concerns

It’s believed that hundreds of millions of VR devices will be used within the next five years. As a result, experts predict that people will be immersed in the metaverse for up to 15 hours each day, whether they’re shopping, chatting with friends, learning, or doing any number of other activities.

It’s likely that users will develop more than one avatar each, which means that billions of virtual personas could be online 10 years into the future. With usage set to increase so dramatically, what threats to security and privacy could we face?

Governments and regulating bodies must ensure that emerging tech is deployed and tested effectively to make sure that privacy and security are protected. Good management of data in the metaverse must address differences between conventional public or company data and private data.

Conclusion

Our immersion in the metaverse is getting closer and closer each day, as new challenges and opportunities become apparent. Regulating bodies, governments, and companies will need to make sure that the metaverse is done right. Leaders should take an active interest in this huge technological and cultural shift as soon as possible.

However, businesses developing their XR ecosystems will have to be clear on how the metaverse is of benefit to consumers and stakeholders alike. Potential initiatives include:

• Mapping your brand’s metaverse value proposition, with clear, well-reasoned use cases.
• An increasing pace of change means that value propositions should be assessed frequently to ensure that potential customers understand why they should choose your business.
• Recognize business partners and appealing ecosystems that you want to team up with in the metaverse, then get in touch to make a start.
• Reconsider your employees’ experience and work on a plan to forge stronger connections between workers by incorporating XR.