WEF Believes the Metaverse Will Be First Used in Industrial Sectors

WEF Believes the Metaverse Will Be First Used in Industrial Sectors

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has published an article predicting the evolution of the metaverse in various sectors. The forum strongly believes that the biggest impact of the technology will be observed in industrial sectors, where it will contribute to higher productivity and help in the reduction of overhead costs.

Metaverse Technology in Industrial Sector  

The World Economic Forum (WEF) believes that the metaverse will first be applied in industrial sectors instead of being adopted by consumers in the first phase. In an article published on January 13, the forum predicts that the metaverse technology will be used at the industrial level first, helping companies design and monitor different tasks more efficiently.

The WEF article has mentioned two forms of technology in companies' early stages of adoption. The two metaverse technologies are known as "digital twins" and "extended reality." Digital twins are the digitalization of a group of real-world elements to facilitate testing the functionality of an element, examining the possible inefficiencies of an assembly line, and creating a prototype model without having to build it physically.

Extended reality is the other technique mentioned in the article. Designers can use technology to mix elements from the real world with digital elements and study the interactions of both elements.

Several companies have started adopting the technology, including the automaker Renault, which launched its industrial metaverse in November, hoping to save USD 330 million by 2025.

Consumer Adoption of the Metaverse

While there is significant focus on the consumer metaverse from companies like Meta, which have been investing billions in the sector, the WEF believes that industries will be the ones pushing innovation.

The article states:

"We will develop many technologies for the industrial metaverse that will make their way into the consumer metaverse—from micro-optics and advanced haptic interfaces to AI sensing awareness."

The forum believes in the establishment of the two technologies before one can improve the other and vice versa. However, it recommends shifting the focus from investing resources in the consumer metaverse to investing in the industrial metaverse, which is already happening across various sectors.

The WEF has referred to the metaverse before when issuing recommendations for maintaining safety and privacy in the metaverse worlds in May 2022, especially when including children in the new environment.

What is your take on the World Economic Forum and its focus on the industrial metaverse? Please post your comments.