CorpVerse Series #1. Consumer Metaverse. The Hype
The discussion around the Metaverse goes up and down, sofa experts battle Zuckerberg's sand castle, and consumers are afraid of the coming future of the "Black Mirror" series. Consultants are confused in their testimony failing to distinguish the Metaverse, practical metaverses, physical multiverse, Marvel's cinematic universe that also has a multiverse of madness inside, Disney's ambition to march towards the Metaverse, and Mask's claims that we live in the simulation, thus in the Metaverse. 🤯
🔮Insight. Emerging Technologies Hype
Company leaders explore the Metaverse theme to assess potential, impact, and key scenarios for the new technology stack.
According to Gartner's Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, the Metaverse just began its ascend to the top, forecasting 10+ years ahead before reaching the "plateau of productivity". Some people believe we are already in the early stages of the Metaverse: at least they claim have been building it for many years and invite joining their "metaverse". Other experts just watch with a popcorn bucket over the failing of Meta's Metaverse. 🍿
One thing is clear: since your corporate leaders do not know squat about the Metaverse, they seek advice from their CTO/CDO/C..., innovation and research labs leadeds, and other tech guys and invite outside experts and gurus to showcase their slides, case studies, and link collections. What an amazing time for consultants and rogues! 😶🌫️
🔮Insight. The first consumer contact
Company employees explore the Metaverse theme through the consumer perspective: entertainment and social scenarios.
Your employees dive into the Metaverse outside of the company. They are buying VR helmets for Christmas (or New Year 🎄) and as birthday presents for themselves and their children to immerse themselves into the Wonderful World of Zuckerberg. Researchers say that in the 2021/2022 season more than 2 million devices were sold from Meta, and by the mid of 2022 eclipsing the 14.8 million units. That is virtual reality devices.
There is also consumer mobile augmented reality (AR). People, you know, continue catching pokemon (and some policemen do it instead of catching robbers). Snapchat offers to check yourself in the "metaverse" using an avatar filter.
So it might turn out that employees are more aware of the Metaverse than employers. Keep it in mind.
⚗️Experiment. AR and VR as a forerunner of the Metaverse
Early experiments on using AR/VR solutions for corporate up-skilling and scenarios requiring 3D modeling or remote augmented presence.
Leading organizations that previously launched AR / VR labs continue to experiment with AR / VR / 3D for corporate training and upskilling, as well as in scenarios that are quite obvious today, requiring 3D modeling or remote presence. This allows them to stay on the edge and train their meta-muscles. But there is also a caveat: they broadcast that AR / VR and the Metaverse are about the same.
As a result, when CEOs of such companies spend an hour or so on Quest 2, it is not surprising to hear later a public statement that the Metaverse is years ahead and not ready yet. (We agree on the conclusion, but not on the arguments.)
🚸Risk. Metaverse is not a risk
Metaverse does not pose a threat; it is just yet another hype topic. #metahype
Notwithstanding numerous speculations – and some "experts" seriously claim that Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse is a Zionist conspiracy to convert all humans into manageable computers – on a massive scale, the Metaverse is not perceived as a threat. Definitely, a much lesser threat than we face every day walking on the street. It's just another marketing hype term.
📧 This is Human Spectrum Lab, a newsletter about Exploring the Human Spectrum and Shining through the Future.
In this series of posts, I share pieces from the Corporate Metaverse report (v2) written by Constantin Kichinsky and based on the original research on the topic done by Constantin Kichinsky, Aleksei Kalenchuk & Ekaterina Filatova in 2022.