About 25% of people will spend at least one hour a day in the metaverse for shopping, work, entertainment or education, says Gartner Inc. Currently, these activities and more are conducted in separate environments.
Marty Resnick, the research vice president at Gartner, believes these activities will eventually take place in a single environment – the metaverse, with multiple destinations across technologies and experiences. Resnick said vendors are already coming up with ways for users to replicate their lives in the digital world.
The research and consulting company describes the metaverse as a collective virtual shared space. It is created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical and digital reality. Moreover, it provides enhanced immersive experiences and is device-independent. As such, the metaverse will be accessible through any type of device. Gartner expects the digital ecosystem to have a virtual economy because no single vendor will own the metaverse. The virtual economy will be enabled by digital currencies and NFTs. This space will have a significant impact on businesses and how work gets done.
In the metaverse, enterprises will provide better engagement, collaboration, and connection to their employees through the immersive workspaces in virtual offices. This means that businesses don’t have to create their own infrastructure as the metaverse will provide the needed framework. Gartner believes virtual events will offer more collaborative and immersive networking opportunities and workshops.
Resnick said enterprises will have the ability to expand and enhance their business models in unprecedented ways. There will be a noted shift from a digital business to a metaverse business. He believes that by 2026, around 30% of the organizations in the world will have products and services specially designed for the metaverse.
However, Resnick highlighted that the adoption of metaverse technologies is nascent and fragmented. He warned against investing heavily in a specific metaverse. It is too early to say which investments would be viable in the long run.
