Tech Trend #9: Metaverse

For the coming years, the US research and consultancy firm Gartner identifies four priorities that companies can address with the help of various technology trends. On this basis, Gartner lists and categorises the 10 most important strategic technology trends for 2023. (centron reported)

As the ninth of these ten tech trends, we would like to introduce you to the so-called metaverse in this article. Gartner classifies this trend under the priority ‘pioneering customer engagement, accelerated responses or opportunities’.

Metaverse

A metaverse is a shared virtual space created by the convergence of physically augmented and digital reality. It is not device-independent, nor is it owned by any single provider. Rather, it is an independent virtual economy enabled by digital currencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Put very simply, metaverses can also be understood as the next generation of the internet.

Metaverses are a combinatorial innovation – meaning they require multiple technologies and trends to function. Contributing to this are virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), flexible working styles, head-mounted displays (HMDs), an AR cloud, the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, AI and spatial computing.

Metaverse technologies represent the future of interaction between the virtual and physical worlds, offering innovative new opportunities and business models. Some of these opportunities are already emerging – for both businesses and individuals:

Gartner predicts that by 2026, 25 per cent of people will spend at least an hour a day in the metaverse – for work, shopping, education, social media or entertainment purposes.

Opportunities for companies

There is currently no single ‘metaverse’. At present, it still encompasses several new technologies. Gartner advises enterprises to exercise caution with investments at this stage, as it is too early to determine what will prove profitable for the enterprise in the long term.

Ultimately, however, the metaverse that Gartner predicts will provide sustainable, decentralised, collaborative and interoperable capabilities and business models that will enable organisations to grow their digital business.
For now, these measures can help you design a strategy that incorporates metaverse technologies:

• Explore opportunities to use these technologies to optimise your digital business or create new products and services
• Build products and solutions through a pipeline of combinatorial innovations
• Identify Metaverse-inspired opportunities by evaluating current, high-quality use cases
• Invest wisely in specific emerging Metaverses (Note: Protect your reputation by proactively establishing data governance, security and privacy policies!)

Source: Gartner