It’s certainly a buzzword: Metaverse. How could we summarize what the Metaverse is? Perhaps we should see it as an evolution of the Internet, where all the new technologies that we now have to create persistent digital spaces are integrated.
We don’t know how the Metaverse will evolve or what it will be like in 10 or more years, but if we take what has happened, for example, with mobile phones in the last 15 years, we can bet on the great changes that the Metaverse is going to bring us, in the way companies work and in the interaction between people.
There are many areas of business activity that can obtain obvious advantages with the use of this new technology, but from the outset we can think of:
– Customer Support
– Sales and Marketing
– Advertising
– Large events, conferences and meetings
But also engineering and industry will improve their activity with the Metaverse.
Companies could also take advantage of the Metaverse to create digital twins that could help advance engineering and predictive maintenance tasks.
Another important application of the Metaverse will be in the area of skills development for workers. Instead of bringing employees together and training them on actual pieces of machinery, they could set up virtual plants where workers could learn to perform all essential operations.
They could also use the virtual environment to simulate accidents/emergencies and train workers on safety response measures more effectively.
A specific use case is that of the Boeing company, to improve its designs and production through the use of a tool such as the Metaverse. In the end, a combination of artificial intelligence, digital twins and 3D design is established. For example, the superimposition of digital twins where employees see and interact with changes and repairs or maintenance tasks, all relocated and with the possibility of sharing their tasks. Boeing plans to harness 3D digital avatars to strengthen aircraft engineering and avoid manufacturing flaws. The digital models will be supported by a “digital thread” that unites each piece with the information about the aircraft from its beginning, with all the later information about life in the different airlines.
In this way, design validation time can be reduced by 80% and complex aircraft assembly tasks can be accelerated by 30%.
Basically, these initiatives will mean a change, perhaps radical, in the way of working in companies that even today we are not able to guess.
Now let’s imagine how we can combine the possibilities of information provided by drones, both in real time and with recorded information, and the digital spaces created where avatars interact, combining the real with the designed.
The possibilities are enormous and we still do not know how to take advantage of the union of the best of two technologies, which are in full development, far from reaching maturity.
The challenges are there and surely the initiatives are already circulating. What we do know for sure, is that we are all going to benefit from these not-so-future developments.
