In the mid-2010s there was much hope that virtual reality would take off and become the next big thing in home entertainment. Many brands have invested in VR headsets that will be connected to PCs and gaming consoles to take users from a 2D environment to an immersive 3D world. While enthusiasts may have quickly jumped on the bandwagon, many consumers still haven’t invested in the trending technology, much to the dismay of Meta (formerly Facebook) CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his growing metaverse.
The concept of VR is not dead and as we move into the mid-2020s, it has gradually transformed into extended reality (XR) through further upgrades. Hardware has become smaller, lighter and wireless. Companies including Meta and Apple market their XR headsets, the Meta Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro respectively, as entertainment devices with a number of enterprise capabilities. But other companies are taking a different approach.
Lenovo’s vision of the XR
After years of effort by the industry to make VR/XR an enjoyment-first medium, Lenovo has pivoted to the enterprise space as the most direct way to give users their first experience with the headset. I spoke to Jason McGuigan, Lenovo’s head of commercial VR, during the brand’s Tech World 2023 conference about how its collaborations with businesses are allowing prospective consumers to try the XR before they buy.
Despite various headsets being available for nearly a decade, McGuigan estimated that 50% to 60% of the market has not tried XR in any capacity. Companies like Chick-fil-A, Walmart or call centers can use VR to train their new employees, and it may be their first exposure to a headset.
Having those first XR experiences at work demystifies many of the questions people have about how the technology operates without any initial investment on their part, he said. Many people are expecting a flat panel in front of the face or more of a 3D television experience when wearing a headset.
“The immersion takes everyone by surprise. His connection with the content amazes everyone. Then they become its fans. We’ve had several people tell us that they started using their headset at work, and then they got a headset for personal use at home. We’re going to see a lot of that translate to the consumer market, but we’re also going to see that growth as we see more and more content being developed. It becomes hyper-specific to everyone,” McGuigan said.
The faltering of immediate consumer interest has been a victory for the enterprise sector. Many organizations are investing in XR as a time-saving and cost-saving mechanism. They can use the headset for a number of purposes, from employee training to remote collaboration in VR. As new generic AI technologies become available, some organizations are developing even more use cases.
AI and XR become one
Over the past decade, businesses have been able to rationalize the cost metrics of investing in XR far more than any individual consumer. If there is a consumer-marketed XR headset available, it is open to greater scrutiny given its size, design, comfort levels, and whether or not the device is worth its price, even for enthusiasts. Meanwhile, employees don’t have much choice over whether a headset is being used in the enterprise area. Aspects such as maximum comfort may be overlooked in favor of cost savings for a company because the devices are not being used for extended periods of time in a work setting. McGuigan said these are things that companies can easily calculate the benefits of in terms of time, money and costs.
“With early technologies, the investment is huge. Enterprises have more to invest because they have more to gain. If I’m an individual gamer and I buy a VR headset, I get satisfaction from one of my uses. Whether I’m using it, how often I use it, I have to create that metric. This is so much that I have spent on it and this is what I am getting out of it. Does it satisfy the amount of entertainment I spent on it? I spent $500, when will I get $500 back in return for investment for my personal satisfaction?” he said.
Similar to hardware, XR requires compatible software and services that are currently more attractive to the enterprise sector than consumers. With the modern advent of generative AI, many companies including Lenovo are using the technology to create inspired solutions for many different industries.
This allows various companies to quickly develop proprietary solutions that require only a login to use. Projects that required six months to execute have been reduced to six weeks, allowing time to consider additional use cases. This presents challenges, such as what happens when the technology updates when a company is starting a project. However, the collaboration of XR and generative AI in the enterprise sector has the potential to point to developments for the industry, which will drive Lenovo’s business overall.
,Anybody in the enterprise is creating their own content which has a high level of cost, and the same reduction in cost is going to happen [apply to] Traditional game developers, traditional XR developers, and consumer developers,” McGuigan said. “Someone who was making a traditional video game last year without any of these tools probably needed to hire outside resources for voice talent. Maybe they needed programming. Maybe he was a good programmer, but a great artist; Maybe he’s a great artist, but a terrible programmer. All those things can be unlocked using generative AI, and now, they can create games, XR applications, all those things that can be translated to the end user.
not too distant future
As generic AI becomes more ubiquitous in the enterprise space, the benefits to the consumer XR space are likely to become more apparent. A large population of content created by generative AI will likely usher in compact XR devices that will be most attractive to consumers for home and entertainment purposes.
McGuigan notes that the trajectory of XR headsets is similar to that of televisions and portable phones, which started out as large bulky devices with few functionalities. However, as they gained additional materials and found faster ways to produce said materials, they became smaller and more efficient.
“We are not millennia away from this. It may take us 10 years to make something extremely light and easy, but when it becomes that easy, it will be the best way to experience it. Because if we’re all sitting in our homes having this conversation, we put on a pair of glasses and it’s like you’re sitting right there. “We’re going to do that instead of just picking up the phone because it’s going to be a much more interactive, fun and enjoyable experience,” McGuigan said.