As COVID-19 swept around the world, hundreds of millions of employees retreated from their offices and into the new world of work-from-home. The pandemic showed us all just how rapidly technology can change the way we work.
As remote working continues post covid, and as technology improves by the day. There have been speculations about the metaverse being the future office space for most companies and organisations. Some people even believe that in five to ten years, we’ll be spending most of our days working and transacting in a virtual reality. To this end, there has been a growing number of CEOs experimenting with the metaverse as a workplace.
The metaverse
Whilst there isn’t a concrete definition of the metaverse yet, many in the computer industry believe it to be the next iteration of the internet.
The metaverse is believed to be a virtual world where people could create an electronic version of themselves (avatars) and use them to work, meet, game, and socialize with those around them (equally represented by avatars). All this will be done in a 3D space, which will be accessed via VR headsets, coupled with our devices. Currently, video games – Fortnitefor instance, are the closest metaverse experience on offer.
Metaverse: The latest buzzword
Even though the term “metaverse” has earned it’s right to being the latest buzzword today, the concept of a 3D immersive internet where people can socialize, play, shop and work dates back decades. To be pedantic, the origins of the metaverse could probably be traced as far back as 1938.
However, in 1992 – Neal Stephenson, an American science fiction writer coined the term “Metaverse” in his book Snow Crash, which depicted a dystopian future world where rich people escape into an alternative 3D, connected reality. This alternative reality started out as a single 65,536 km road, circling an artificial globe, and expanded from there as people bought, built and renovated virtual real estate. In Neal Stephenson’s vision through this book, people in the metaverse were responsible for their own avatars, which ranged from highly artistic customized creations to cheap commodity offerings.
Fast-forward to the future, the term “metaverse” became a buzzword when Facebook rebranded its corporate identity to Meta, in October 2021. Facebook also announced plans to invest at least $10 billion in the concept that year. In addition to Meta, tech giants including Google, Microsoft, Nvidia and Qualcomm are also investing billions of dollars in the concept.
For this reason, the metaverse is anticipated to be a lucrativeindustry not so far from now. In fact, a report from McKinsey & Company estimates that the Metaverse could potentially generate up to $5 trillion in value by 2030, due to its potential to be used in a variety of consumer and business applications.In addition to this, the global AR, VR, and MR market is also estimated to roughly reach $250 billion by 2028.
Data privacy and security concerns
There are still major questions about how to make the metaverse safe in so far as data privacy and security is concerned. This is because the technologies that enable the metaverse – like VR, AR, 5G, AI and blockchain, are all susceptible to issues of privacy and data security. These issues could possibly range from an increased number of phishing attacks to advertisers collecting a wealth of user information through avatars. Therefore, unless data privacy and security concerns are resolved, this could perhaps be the biggest hurdle the metaverse has to overcome.
In a nutshell
In as much as what the metaverse will do for the average in-person workplace remains an open question. Early research and experimentation suggest the uses of the metaverse workplace could fall roughly into three functional categories: an alternate office space, or place for immersive training, or an employee hangout.
However, sceptics dismissed the theories of the metaverse being the future workplace as mere speculations. They say that the metaverse will never be more than a fringe interest for anyone but gamers, who already spend hundreds of millions of dollars annually on VR content.
Futurists on the other hand argue that while it is early days for the metaverse and fundamental technical barriers still exist, the metaverse will happen. Today’s bulky VR headsets, which can make your face hot, will be replaced by lighter ones, and the technology that is currently sustaining this next iteration of the internet will be at least a hundred folds better.
If this sounds far-fetched, think about how much has changed over the past two years in terms of work environments. Did it for a moment cross your mind that you could spend nearly an entire workday on a Zoom or Microsoft teams call?