The metaverse is changing the way we interact, exchange, and communicate in a decentralized and digital-first economy. It is opening new imaginative, social, and financing opportunities. This is a virtual space that allows you to mimic your physical life activities and bring your imagination into the real.
A multitude of use cases are emerging across various industries, such as
- Banking (virtual currencies, NFTs)
- Retail (in-store experience)
- Healthcare (gene sequencing and drug discovery)
- Manufacturing (factories of the future)
- Gaming (immersive experience)
- Online learning (improved remote learning experience) and so on.
This adoption opens a vast array of opportunities, especially with the increased global reach, increased customer touchpoints, data-driven personalization, and the true convergence of the real and digital worlds. In fact, the introduction of cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have made it possible to create a fully functional economy within the virtual world, enabling real-world satisfaction through digital engagement.
Breaking Down the Metaverse
The metaverse exists at the intersection of many different new-age technologies, such as blockchain, virtual reality and augmented reality (VR/AR), mixed reality (MR), artificial intelligence (AI), and 5G to create a state-of-the-art immersive experience. Apart from these avant-garde technologies, the metaverse is poised to transform the way experiences are created and delivered through various mediums and channels.
What we perceive as interactive content today will be transformed into a 3D-rendered virtual world, where users can consume new content via avatars. That is, the content creators will create digital copies (avatars) of themselves and existing environments (homes, studios, workplaces) and interact with online visitors. Imagine, instead of just adding the items to cart, your digital avatar will enact the whole shopping process as if you were right in the store.
MR applications are evolving to meet the changing needs of our times. With recent improvements in the quality of video transmission, users can experience more than one kind of content at once.
- You can host hundreds of people in a single instance of a server and motion track a person's movements and learn human behavior.
- In the medical field, the doctor can virtually interact with the patient and have a clear discussion about their health condition.
- You can bring a range of real-world capabilities to users in a 3-D immersive world.
Early Adoption of the Metaverse
Many tech giants are showcasing interest in developing and adopting the metaverse. A leading American multinational technology company is planning to build a factory-of-the-future using AR, VR, robotics, and AI technologies. A premium manufacturer of automobiles company will push its virtual operations into the metaverse space, allowing humans and robots to collaborate and design futuristic models. Likewise, a sports brand is already making the buzz with virtual branded sneakers and apparel. With brands striving to enhance their deliverability, the end-users can get to experience things like never before.
Being an early adopter of next-generation technologies, Tech Mahindra has unveiled its TechMVerse. The offering will help customers in building an interactive and immersive experience in the metaverse. To maximize the value delivered to end customers, the TechM team intends to set up a Silicon Valley Metaverse Immersion Studio to ease the integration and interoperability
On initial notes, the use cases the TechM team have been working on are a car dealership (DealerVerse), NFT marketplace (Middlemist), virtual bank (Meta Bank), and gaming center. Further, TechM intends to offer exclusive digital collectibles in a collaboration with Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.
To deliver futuristic solutions by adopting the best-in-class technology, Tech Mahindra has also partnered with Union Bank of India (UBI) in line with Tech Mahindra’s NXT.NOW™ framework to launch a metaverse lounge called “Uni-Verse”. The partnership aims to transform the banking experience of the customer and deliver real business outcomes like the customer can move around the lounge and get information about their profile, deposits, investments, and others.
The growing adoption of technologies in Asia Pacific countries makes it the fastest-growing region in the metaverse market. The major focus is towards consumer, commercial, and healthcare applications.
A Promising Landscape for the Metaverse
The metaverse is the new market space where brands can achieve personalization according to channel engagement, profile and event data, and predictive analytics. It has the potential to enhance and reinvent current e-commerce practices while offering users a personalized experience. As it is the emerging phase, the brand can define the guidelines for the future with only imagination as the limitation.
Market leaders are aggressively exploring avenues to enhance the customer experience. Newer use cases are being created, and numerous businesses are embracing this groundbreaking technology as both a provider and consumer. The global ecosystem is evolving as the metaverse is becoming a thriving reality, but the road ahead looks fascinating.
About the Author:
Anuj Bhalla,
Digital and Cloud Transformation Leader
President & SBU Head - APJI Enterprise
Anuj Bhalla is President and SBU Head for APJI enterprise business at Tech Mahindra. He leads a charter of profitable business growth through value creation for customers with solutioning on new-age technologies enabled by delivery transformation teams and partners. With over 20 years of experience across business development, practice development, IT strategy, transformation, pre-sales and delivery for areas such as hybrid cloud, open source/open stack, he has a proven to be customer-centric leader with a passion for excellence and unrelenting focus on rapid execution.
About the Author:
Vibhu Mangla,
Head Strategy & Growth Officer, APJI Enterprise
Vibhu Mangla is Head Strategy and Growth Officer for APJI enterprise business at Tech Mahindra. With over 12 years of experience across strategy, consulting, org design, and Change management, he exhibits a passion for customer-centricity, excellence, and unearthing new business opportunity areas.
