EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

As business leaders recognize its potential, virtual reality (VR) is rapidly gaining traction. By 2030, virtual reality’s contributions to worldwide GDP will likely surpass $450 billion, according to PwC. The technology may also ultimately support more than 20 million jobs. The recent expansion of remote work has quickly advanced virtual reality programs and business use.

Enterprise-level virtual reality programs can help businesses cut costs. They can also enable businesses to operate more efficiently. Improved customer services represents another benefit. The use of virtual reality is now the norm in a variety of industries, from manufacturing, to healthcare, to retail, to tourism, to the financial sector.

Here’s a glimpse into how virtual reality is reshaping a handful of sectors:

  1. Accelerated vehicle manufacturing. In the automobile industry, engineers are using virtual reality to create mock-ups for vehicles. Brands from BMW to Land Rover rely on the technology to analyze designs and vehicle blind spots. This conserves financial resources. It avoids the problem of commissioning successive iterations of expensive vehicle prototypes.
  2. Higher-quality healthcare. Healthcare professionals are using virtual reality to learn more about the specifics of working with and on real human beings. Programs based in virtual reality are used as surgical training and assessment tools. In the healthcare setting, virtual reality is also being used to help burn victims and others with painful conditions achieve physical and psychological relief. The therapeutic benefits of VR are under continued exploration.
  3. Smoother shopping experiences. Purchasing clothing online is easy and convenient. However, the body-scanning technology in VR could make shopping even more seamless. It would enable people to virtually try on clothing ahead of making a receiving a box of goods on the doorstep.
  4. More enticing travel options. In large families, choosing a vacation destination that appeals to everyone can be tough. With virtual reality, an increasing number of individuals may be able to try it before they buy it. In 2015, Thomas Cook piloted Try Before You Fly, a VR program that enables people to sample a vacation in advance. Google Expeditions also facilitate VR arm-chair based traveling.
  5. Better employee trainings. Virtual reality enables people to immerse themselves in a almost any real-world situation. Bank of America is experimenting with VR lessons on topics ranging from notary services to fraud detection. One of the company’s most innovative programs includes using virtual reality to help employees practice empathy with customers.

Virtual reality offers business leaders the opportunity to reinvent how they produce products and offer services. In the future, it may also provide useful insights into customer behavior. Breakthrough research is integrating retina-tracking into virtual reality technologies. Much further into the future, engineers may also be able to interface brainwave activity into the virtual environment.

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