Industrial Metaverse

How Business Value is Driving Adoption

- Thomas Hainzel

The idea of an immersive virtual reality where humans interact as avatars in a simulated environment may seem a little out there for most people. Yet today, the benefits of the industrial metaverse — where the physical and the digital come together, boosted by the power of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), high-performance networks, the cloud, virtual/augmented and extended reality (VR, AR and ER), and 5G/6G connectivity — are beginning to solidify.

And it’s the business value of the use cases that’s making the difference.

Indeed, the recent research with EY shows that businesses are starting to embrace the potential of this augmented world. Eighty percent of experienced respondents indicated they believe that the industrial metaverse will have a significant or transformative impact on their business. And those companies who have already deployed use cases report more benefits than those in the planning phase say they expect to experience.

The digital twin is emerging as a flagship application of the industrial metaverse. It’s a digital representation of a physical system or environment. It contains physical and procedural properties and conditions and can integrate real-time data and simulations.

3D and PLM market leader Dassault Systèmes refers to this as “virtual twin experiences.” In one of their recent showcases for equipment manufacturers, visitors entered a giant hall, strapped on a pair of smart goggles and a backpack loaded with PCs, batteries, sensors, and actors.