Meta’s vision: How the Metaverse will impact businesses

In 2021, Mark Zuckerberg shocked the world by announcing a huge rebrand of Facebook’s parent company (then also called Facebook) to reflect a major pivot in the company’s strategy. Meta was born.

At the Meta launch, Zuckerberg painted a picture of what the future could look like: A virtual world reached through virtual reality headsets where people could meet as 3D avatars, play games, attend events, go shopping, and perhaps go to work.

“We believe the metaverse will be the successor to the mobile internet, we’ll be able to feel present – like we’re right there with people no matter how far apart we actually are,” Zuckerberg enthused in his announcement.

As we approach the two-year anniversary of the social media firm becoming a “metaverse company”, the world has already seen changes across enterprise.

Brands such as drinks-maker Coca-Cola, luxury-fashion houses Gucci and Burberry, car firm Hyundai, and many more, have built their own metaverse platforms to be accessed in virtual reality, with the options to buy virtual clothes, drinks, and cars.

“We’ve been really surprised by how much the headsets and the VR have been used by enterprises and companies,” says vice president of Meta Reality Labs at Meta, Christine Trodella, speaking at the Economist’s Enterprise Metaverse Summit. “The way that companies are using this, and the innovation that they’re doing, is truly mind-blowing.”

From Meta’s point of view, enterprises are using the metaverse in four key areas: community, design and creativity, training, and in the core of their businesses as part of employee collaboration.

From a community side of things, companies are using it to gather employees for town halls, Q&A’s, and conferences, Trondella adds. “[They] are using it for collaboration, and for having meetings to bring people together where they may be in disparate locations.”

“We’re starting to see more and more companies that are really putting this technology at the core of their business, both in terms of how they interact with their employee, how their employees use the technology, but also how they engage with their consumers,” Trondella says.

Take German tech giant Siemens as an example of how enterprises are using the technology. Projects have included an underwater greenhouse startup that uses VR headsets, digital twins, and metaverse technology to “access” their underwater domes through virtual reality.

Using sensors, the startup, Nemo’s Garden, can monitor CO2 levels, oxygen levels, and the temperature so it can monitor its subsea farms in real-time.

For Trodella, the design and creativity in the metaverse is what she loves most about this burgeoning platform.

“There’s an example with an auto manufacturer that has actually shaved their auto design by using 3D collaboration, from weeks to actually days,” Trondella smiles.

Learning and development

Then there’s the training side: “This is a pretty well-known and widespread use case.”

For example, in healthcare, virtual reality training allowing medics to “touch” a patient remotely is under development by medical and tech experts at the University of South Wales.

With this, medical students can practice dealing with an injured patient, for example, and carry out a physical examination, and then operate an ultrasound machine correctly and produce a scan, all from a completely remote location.

“You’re not only seeing efficacy and efficiency, but you’re also seeing a massive, huge, cost saving,” she adds.

This is especially useful for “training instances where you can’t put somebody in an actual situation, but you’re able to simulate that so they don’t have to react based on something they’ve seen or read, but by something they’ve actually done.”

“As you’re replicating training instances where you can’t put somebody in an individual, actual situation, but you’re able to simulate that so that they don’t have to react based on something that they’ve only seen or ready, but by something that they’ve actually done,” Trondella explains.

Another example recently highlighted by TechInformed is the UK’s Ministry of Justice, which is exploring VR technologies to train prison staff ahead of entering the actual prisons to prepare them for environment in every sense, including smell.

For Trondella, early metaverse adopters are set to see the greatest competitive advantage, with the Meta exec comparing the oncoming rush of immersive technologies to the advent of the internet.

“A lot of companies were left behind then, and a lot of companies now are forming metaverse teams, with third parties,” she explains.

With Apple set to jump on the VR bandwagon through the launch of its Vision Pro headset next year, the market could be set to open up even more. Trondella admits that she’s happy to see it: “It really validates the space.”

“It’s starting to really feel that it’s not just use case adoption, but a broader sense of including it into every part of a business with employees.”