Zoom isn ’ t the only organisation reaching for a slice of this massive , slightly intangible pie . “ While it ’ s clear that the metaverse is a while away from becoming a commonplace reality , there is undoubtedly an appetite and opportunity for virtual reality in all areas of our lives , driving technology companies and telcos to evolve their offerings ,” says Niall Norton , GM at Amdocs and CEO at Openet . Norton points to the fact that , in January , Walmart unveiled a demo of its own VR shopping experience and , soon after Meta ’ s announcement last year , Microsoft revealed that Teams will be getting virtual reality avatars .
“ When AI and natural language capabilities that already exist are added to the mix , this will have huge implications ,” he adds . “ Microsoft ’ s announcement is surely indicative of the workplace being a growth area for VR . With the world of work changing drastically as employees become used to joining meetings or attending events via video conferencing apps , it ’ s easy to see how VR is the next step in the evolution of workplace technology .”
Beyond the White Collar Metaverse When I sat down to write this article , a lot of my preconceptions were tailored towards the kind of white collar , techfocused office work where AR / VR and metaverse experiences are starting to crop up . Indeed , this is where we ’ re starting to see early adoption , which makes sense ; it ’ s easiest to move the kind of workplace where everything already happens inside the G-Suite further into the virtual world . However , when I spoke to Matt Rose , an Experience designer and self-professed
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