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OVER THE PAST COUPLE OF YEARS,
virtual reality (VR) has grown
in popularity, especially among
gamers, who regularly use VR
headsets at home. VR may soon
see significant pickup in the
corporate world too, as compa-
nies increasingly use virtual and
augmented reality (AR) technol-
ogy to simulate real-life condi-
tions during training or to gather
scattered executives in a virtual
meeting room.
According to market intelli-
gence firm IDC, worldwide spend-
ing on VR and AR technology
will reach $20 billion this year,
up 69% from 2018. Enterprise
spending is expected to account
for about 64.5% of that number,
and it could jump to 80% by
2022.
Kris Kolo, global executive
director of the international VR/
AR Association, says VR and AR
“will fundamentally transform
how companies train employees,
design products, and run market-
ing operations.”
Driving this change is ease of
use, says Daniel O’Brien, general
manager with HTC VIVE, a lead-
ing virtual reality company. “Thehardware has improved quickly,”
he says. “Each product iteration
has been influenced by the needs
of the enterprise and commercial
market.”
With more comprehensive
software and hardware solutionsnow available, including HTC’s
VIVE Pro and VIVE Pro Eye,
O’Brien is seeing a pickup in VR
usage across sectors such as au-
tomotive, architecture, engineer-
ing, and health care.
Companies are using VR to
train employees to perform com-
plex and often dangerous tasks.
For instance, doctors and nurses
are using it to learn new surgical
skills, fire fighters to train for
hard-to-recreate situations, the
construction industry for safety
training, and so on.
While it’s still the early days,
there could be a point when don-
ning a headset at work becomes
the norm. “Most people’s first
experience with VR won’t be at
home while playing a game,”
O’Brien says. “It will be in a
professional environment.”■A More Virtual WorkplaceEnterprises are adopting virtual and augmentedrealit y technology at a rapid pace.