Virtual Reality (VR) has become very popular in recent years due to the rise of headsets that are both cheap and user-friendly. Businesses are taking advantage of VR technology because it creates so many possibilities for us to see places that we never could or that exist only digitally.
Leveraging Virtual Reality for Success
In the digital sphere, you can create objects just by describing them, move between places immediately, and redo or undo simply by pressing a button. Here are some interesting ways that VR is being used as a powerful business tool and what we could see happen down the road.
VR and Every Industry
VR was primarily seen as an exciting tool to enhance the entertainment industry. However, VR in business is now forecasted to surpass VR as an entertainment experience, with about 9.2 billion in spending by 2021 according to the latest research.
Almost anything that is possible in the real world and in business, such as customer service, marketing, finance, production, and human resources, is possible in VR.
In terms of training, VR allows us to be completely immersed in any case and photorealistic visuals can make our brain believe that we’re seeing real actions and objects. This allows us to monitor as well as learn from the interactions that occur in VR. For example, VR has developed some useful public speaking training systems.
In terms of practical uses, the sky is the limit. VR creates the potential for humans to do certain tasks or actions without being physically present (known as telepresence), and there are endless options for modeling and interacting with a virtual version of a real-world object.
Design
In the design and prototype businesses, VR is great for simulating and testing any parts, processes, or mechanisms to make sure the performance is up to standards and it is reliable.
This can be tested under any condition imaginable but at a much more cost-effective, safe, and quick level. The main costs are the set up, platform, and tools.
Businesses can save millions of dollars by cancelling the need for prototypes that are real life and full scale, because ideas can be explored in VR without model-building.
This is already used extensively by Boeing and Airbus for their aircraft design; they use simulated situations and spaces to design and test out new features that they want to roll out. Architects are also using VR to present their concepts to clients so they can explore the design before starting the build.
Customer Service
VR is a useful tool for any business to rethink their engagement and interactions with their customers. VR can be used for marketing and customer services by creating new ways to show off products or services.
The forecast for VR in customer service is the potential for gathering useful information on customer behaviors. By monitoring how clients engage with something in a virtual reality, you can gain a lot of actionable data about how people act or react in certain situations and interact with others.
Customers that are already much more comfortable online for buying, returning, and communicating with businesses can now put on a headset into a virtual world instead of going to a physical store. In VR, clients can interact with sales reps (either virtual copies of humans, or AI in the future).
This can be used for anything from test driving a car, trying out a new power tool, or putting on a new dress. Real-world showrooms will probably continue to exist because clients often still want to see and feel products for themselves.
Training
Training in VR is excellent because if something goes wrong, you can just undo or reset. That means in complex fields like healthcare and training surgeons to make life-or-death surgeries on patients, they can practice without there being any repercussions to a mistake.
VR is also a great use for doctors and surgeons to test out new models and tools in an environment that’s safe, regulated, and virtual. On the flip side, the equipment builders will get surgeon feedback and be able to tweak their product if required before rolling it out.
Another great training use is for pilots, because the current simulators cost millions of dollars and take up a lot of space. Now, all they need is a VR headset and they get an even more detailed and realistic simulator.
Because it’s more accessible, pilots can get a lot more training done before they take to the skies. Another example is law enforcement, where VR can be used to train officers to respond to any kind of scenario, from traffic stops to active shooters.
VR Service
VR as a service is much cheaper than traditional simulations, although we must note there are still significant costs up front.
This is more applicable if the environments have to be extremely coded and designed. Businesses are starting to pop up offering ready-made VR services, in the form of hireable software and support to build the necessary world.
More and more services like these are being developed, which in turn speeds up the deployment and enhancement of VR in different industries.
We can expect that VR technology will continue to expand, improve, and revolutionize our experiences in the business world. We’re now seeing developments from eye-tracking technology which will interact with the simulation to interfacing brainwave activity. With VR, the possibilities truly are endless and only time will tell how it will affect each industry.
- Leveraging Virtual Reality for Success of Your Business - November 29, 2019