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The Metaverse Was Meant to Replace Your Office

18 March, 2024

The Metaverse Was Meant to Replace Your Office

When Mark Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook as Meta in 2021, he estimated that the metaverse could reach a billion people within a decade. Shortly after, Bill Gates predicted that within two to three years, “most virtual meetings will move from 2D camera image grids—which I refer to as the Hollywood Squares model, though I know that probably dates me—to the metaverse, a 3D space with digital avatars.”

The Slow Adoption of the Metaverse in the Workplace

In the fall of 2022, Microsoft announced a partnership with Meta to integrate Mesh, a platform for collaboration in mixed reality, alongside Microsoft 365 applications into Meta’s Quest products. Meta also launched Horizon Workrooms for virtual meetings. In October 2021, IT company Accenture purchased 60,000 Oculus headsets to train new employees and created its own metaverse, called Nth Floor, which featured digital twins of some of its offices, including cafés and legless avatars.
However, nearly three years later, the typical office worker is still not using a headset for meetings. While nine out of ten companies can identify potential uses for extended reality, only one in five has actually invested in the technology, according to research from Omdia, which surveyed 400 large companies across various industries in February.

Experts say the metaverse vision isn’t dead, but companies are still seeking the best use cases. They note that the metaverse, currently fragmented across various virtual worlds, needs revamping to cater to different employees, and the technology for accessing it must improve.

Building a Metaverse That Enhances Reality

The metaverse must be designed to prioritize the needs of real people, says Anand van Zelderen, a researcher in organizational behavior and virtual reality at the University of Zurich. This involves assessing how workers feel in virtual spaces and addressing the loneliness some experience, as these environments cannot replicate physical meetups. The current technology “removes people too much from their reality, and they don’t want that for extended periods,” van Zelderen explains.Instead, he argues, the metaverse should “enhance our reality rather than replace it.” It should go beyond replicating in-person offices, allowing people to meet in unique virtual locations, such as mountaintops or Mars, or creating customized virtual workplaces tailored to team needs.

Businesses Selectively Embrace Virtual Reality

Businesses are likely to be discerning in their use of virtual spaces. “Companies are trying to identify where VR truly adds value,” says Rolf Illenberger, CEO and founder of VRdirect, a company specializing in VR software for enterprises. “There’s no point in using new technology for tasks that are perfectly fine on a video call.” Additionally, the adoption of VR technology faces challenges, as some people find wearing headsets unnatural, and the learning curve can be steep. Even with advancements in functionality, such as Apple's Vision Pro headsets, sales in the US are expected to be under 500,000 units this year.