Radhika Nallayam

Critics call it another hype. Some say it’s the magic pixie dust of the tech world. Whatever the case, Metaverse is eventually going to impact our lives in unprecedented ways. While experts are debating its most pressing use-cases in the consumer and enterprise segments, one area has already proven its potential – the industrial sector. 

ABI Research estimates that the industrial metaverse, exemplified by digital twins, augmented field service and predictive maintenance, could grow into a $100 billion market by 2030. VentureBeat reports that the figure is larger than the $50 billion consumer metaverse and the $30 billion enterprise metaverse combined. 

At the CES (Consumer Electronic Show) 2023, several examples of how Metaverse can transform industrial processes were showcased. Among those, Mercedes-Benz’s Metaverse factory was particularly remarkable. 

How BMW and Mercedes- Bens are building Future-ready factories with Metaverse 

Mercedes-Benz partnered with Nvidia as part of its vision to digitalize its production process completely. The automaker will use the NVIDIA Omniverse platform (a platform that cab build 3D pipelines and simulate large-scale virtual worlds) to design and plan manufacturing and assembly facilities. With the help of AI and metaverse, these factories will rely on feedback loops to reduce waste, decrease energy consumption and continuously enhance quality.

According to Nvidia, Omniverse will allow Mercedes-Benz planners to access the digital twin of the factory, review and optimize the plant as needed. Every change can be quickly evaluated and validated in the virtual world, then implemented in the real world to ensure maximum efficiency and ergonomics for factory workers. This is expected help the automaker to drastically reduce delays in production process and make it truly smarter. 

Auto-giant BMW – which is reportedly the first player to implement the Nvidia technology to simulate its factory environment and build a digital twin of its factory floor- reports reduction in planning times, improvement in flexibility and precision, and a 30% more efficient planning process. 

Building on Digital twin 

Industries like auto manufacturing, shipping and mining are already extensively leveraging digital twins – which is considered to be the foundation of enterprise metaverse. Some of the early use-cases of Metaverse in these industries include – 

• Simulating fleet behaviour and tracking containers that are buried in stacks 
• Building aircraft engines using digital twins to simulate how they fly 
• Building factories and production environments in the virtual worlds to experience how exactly they will function in real world – just like Mercedes- Benz did. 

We are witnessing the rapid emergence of a metaverse focused solely on industry. This industrial metaverse may still be in its formative stages, but its early adoption of digital twinning is already showing results, increasing productivity and efficiency, boosting safety and enabling new levels of flexibility to industrial sectors hardly known for their agility, wrote Nishant Batra, Chief Strategy and Technology Officer, Nokia, in his blog for World Economic Form. 

Industrial Metaverse will likely open up a whole new dimension in the human-machine collaboration history.

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Metaverse discussions about creating virtual worlds consume the plans of many fashion, automotive and retail brands. However, the human side of consumer activities in the metaverse have not been a significant part of the dialogue. A global study by Momentum Worldwide, metaverse partners to the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As), found that 80% of people feel more included in the metaverse than in real life. Consumers are now looking to the metaverse to fill three core aspects of life—inspiration, individuality and inclusion.  

More than $120 billion has been invested in building out metaverse technology and infrastructure in 2022 to take advantage of the nearly three-quarters of consumers worldwide (71%) who promise to focus more on their mental wellbeing and are flocking to the metaverse to seek inspiration, be themselves, and connect with others more positively and inclusively. Exponential growth and adoption of marketing technologies led to the metaverse, but the impact these technologies have on people must be a key consideration for a brand’s metaverse strategy.  

Consumers have joined virtual platforms to have fun, be challenged, find inspiration and connect with others. Global research has shown that:  

• 80% of consumers find the metaverse to be a much more inclusive place 
• 63% had no idea they had been in the metaverse all this time 
• 85% like that they can change their appearance as they desire 
• 79% say their friends within the space accept them for who they are rather than what they look like  

Jason Alan Snyder, global chief technology officer, Momentum Worldwide, comments, ”The metaverse is a combinatorial innovation of complex technologies. Until recently, the combined technologies that form metaverse experiences were costly to deploy and consume and, therefore, not practical. The practice of combining these technologies has matured, deployment costs are reduced and metaverse experiences are broadly available, so consumer adoption is saturating. Brands are adopting the metaverse at scale too. Now we are learning how people behave and feel in the metaverse as we remove the barriers to entry. One particularly interesting area is the relationship between identity and personality.”

“Metaverse identity is an extension of our many identities in the real world. We are accustomed to constructing pseudo-identities for ourselves at work, in our personal lives with friends and family, and on social media. Brands are learning that identity and personality are two different things and not always interlinked. Understanding what consumers want from the metaverse, their behaviours and motivations to fulfil happiness, find escapism and seek inclusion are vital for guiding how brands and businesses should behave. It’s imperative that brands understand when they can or should violate expectations about identity and personality. The new opportunity is to help brands navigate the friction between identity and personality in the metaverse.”

Helen Mumford Sole, well-known happiness coach and thought leader in digital transformation, says, “Whilst we are not even close to fully understanding the impact of the metaverse, this research is important because it shows the positive potential of the technology. When many people are struggling with their happiness, it seems that they are finding new ways of experiencing belonging and community in the metaverse. In the analogue world, these are significant contributors to happiness.” The global research was conducted using quantitative and qualitative methods of 4,500 participants from seven countries: Canada, Japan, MENA, Mexico, Spain, the UK and the US.  

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