Immersive experiences are already popular in the entertainment, gaming, and fashion industries, but they can also be a tool to meet other corporate needs, such as simulating manufacturing operations and training managers to hold sensitive conversations.
Deloitte made this bet at the end of February, when it announced a partnership with virtual space company, Vatom, to offer immersive experiences to diverse sectors, from companies looking to boost culture with virtual reality to brands focused on fostering the engagement of the community. Together, the companies claim to offer the ability to host thousands of people simultaneously in the same virtual space at the same time, along with a cross-chain wallet and access to a collection of digital assets and tokens from their metaversal experiences.
The hidden goal, however, is to provide companies with underlying data about users. “One of the major trends affecting companies across all industries is less accessibility to third-party data,” Khusro Khalid, CEO of Deloitte Digital, told Cointelegraph.
According to Khalid, firms that rely on knowing and connecting with customers are looking to replace third-party data and cut customer acquisition costs. “Given the customizable nature of the product, companies can leverage a host of Web3 tools, including virtual spaces, Programmable Digital Objects, a cross-chain universal Wallet, POS redemption, token gating, and loyalty points, among other features, for a diversity of business applications,” he said.
For Khalid, companies that rely on knowing and connecting with customers are looking to replace third-party data and reduce customer acquisition costs. “Given the customizable nature of the product, businesses can take advantage of a number of Web 3.0 tools such as virtual spaces, programmable digital objects, a universal multi-chain wallet, point-of-sale redemption, token management, and points loyalty, among other functions, for a wide variety of business applications,” he says.
Deloitte envisions a number of metaverse tools for companies. Virtual spaces offer companies “not only the ability to bring together team members from around the world at events and meetings, but also gamification tools that enable more engaging and interactive employee training,” she noted.
3D asset generation – Omniverse. Source: DeloitteOther examples are digital twins for real estate, which offer potential buyers an immersive tour of a property without leaving home. “In each of these cases, virtual spaces not only create a direct channel for engagement, but also an easy way to get valuable first- and second-hand data from the people who participate in virtual spaces, which helps inform future efforts and strategies,” Khalil explained.
Virtual reality experiences are attracting billions of dollars in investment from companies around the world. The size of the global immersive technology market was valued at USD 21.6 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach around USD 134.18 billion in 2030, according to a report from Precedence Research.
Tech giants like Nvidia, Qualcomm, Google, Meta, which owns Facebook, and Microsoft have already unveiled metaverse-related initiatives. Blockchain-based and decentralized platforms operating metaverse businesses include Decentraland, The Sandbox, Axie Infinity, Metahero, and Star Atlas, to name a few.
Eric Pulier, founder and CEO of Vatom, believes that the metaverse is the Internet of tomorrow, and as such, no company will be left out of immersive experiences:
“Web 3.0 represents the next iteration of the Internet. Just as there is no company or industry that does not use the Internet as an engagement tool, there is no business sector that cannot benefit from more effectively engaging their target audience at scale with the Web 3.0”.
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