Six trends are driving the use of metaverse technologies today and will continue to drive its use over the next three to five years, according to Gartner, Inc.
Marty Resnick, VP analyst at Gartner said that while widescale adoption of metaverse technologies is more than 10 years away, there are practical ways organizations are harnessing them now, for example, in employee onboarding, sales enablement, higher education, medical and military training and immersive shopping experiences.
Gartner defines a metaverse as “the next level of interaction in the virtual and physical worlds.” Metaverse technologies allow people to replicate or enhance their physical activities, by transporting or extending physical activities to a virtual world, or by transforming the physical one.
Despite the hype, the adoption of metaverse technologies is nascent and fragmented. Gartner recommends caution when investing in a specific metaverse, as it is too early to determine which investments will be viable in the long term, and the ethical, financial and reputational risks of early investments are not fully known.
“Use this time for learning, exploring and preparing for a metaverse with limited implementation,” Resnick said. “Review these six trends for opportunities that could benefit your organization.”
- Gaming – Gartner predicts that by 2025, the serious games market will grow by 25% due to the impact of metaverse technologies.
- Digital humans – Digital humans are interactive, AI-driven representations that have some of the characteristics, personality, knowledge and mindset of a human. Organizations are already planning on using digital humans to act as identified digital agents within metaverse environments for customer service, support, sales and other interactions with current and potential customers. By 2027, a majority of B2C enterprise CMOs will have a dedicated budget for digital humans in metaverse experiences.
- Virtual spaces – Gartner predicts that by 2025, 10% of workers will regularly use virtual spaces (in activities such as sales, onboarding, and remote teams), up from 1% in 2022.
- Shared experiences – By 2028, 10% of public events (such as sports and performing arts) will offer participation in the metaverse, fuelling the rapid buildout of commercial metaverse shared experiences, according to Gartner.
- Tokenized assets – Tokenized assets offer new business models for content creators. In metaverse experiences, most tokenized assets will use non-fungible token technologies (NFTs). Gartner predicts that by 2027, 25% of retail organizations with an e-commerce presence will have completed at least one proof of concept for tokenized assets using metaverse technologies.
- Spatial computing – Spatial computing combines physical and digital objects to digitally enhance physical spaces. This allows organizations to get more out of physical and digital assets by surfacing related, “unseen” digital information and content anchored to people, places and things. By 2026, the second and third iterations of spatial computing glasses will arrive, creating a more pervasive metaverse experience connected to the physical world, predicts Gartner.
On October 4th, Customer Experience Magazine will host a panel discussion on designing a human-centred metaverse experience. Keep an eye on our LinkedIn page and join us for this exciting discussion with some of the leading CX experts in the industry.
Read the full press release here.