How Metaverse will change the way things work

How Metaverse will change the way things work

Music expert Chris Longwood is working on a new album. He wants to exchange work with global experts through a virtual studio.

Longwood, 35 years old, now lives in Houston (USA). As a recording expert, he spends hours via Zoom and email exchanges with artists around the globe in preparation for the release of a new album. However, he hopes to be able to meet them, sitting in a virtual studio to edit the tracks in real time.

"I saw a future where customers could wear VR headsets and sit face to face, as if they were in the studio with me," Longwood said. "We can talk back and forth, we don't have to take turns talking like on Zoom."

Metaverse can describe complex processes in the simplest way in a meeting. Photo: WSJ

People like Longwood expect a new way of working in virtual environments, called the metaverse. There, each participant will be in the same room wherever they are, communicating through avatars, combining specialized tools in hand to manipulate virtual versions of chalk, pens , machinery, fabric...

During the period of social distancing due to the epidemic, many companies have conducted online meetings. But with the metaverse, experts expect it to completely change the way of working remotely, even creating new jobs. Currently, the metaverse is still in its early stages, the hardware is expensive and cumbersome, but promises to open up a lot of potential for interaction at work.

"Metaverse will be more evolutionary than revolutionary," commented John Egan, CEO of market prediction firm L'Atelier BNP Paribas (France). "Production capacity will be greatly expanded, in the same way that computers and mobile phones create higher levels of productivity and complexity."

Flexibility in work

“You will meet colleagues or partners immediately wherever you are, as if you are using teleportation,” says Florent Crivello, founder and CEO of virtual office provider Teamflow.

Such meetings, he says, will go beyond Zoom, allowing participants to design toys, furniture or buildings using 3D tools. With free time, they can play games or chat privately. "While old-fashioned online calling still works, focusing in the virtual world makes for a more immersive experience," said one metaverse advocate.

Tolga Kurtoglu, HP's CTO, for example, testing how vehicles handle collisions before they're manufactured in the metaverse would dramatically speed up the product development process. Stanford University's Jeremy Bailenson also thinks virtual environments are cost-effective, especially for experiments that require handling dangerous or expensive equipment.

Create new jobs

When the Internet appeared, most businesses began to adapt by being more present in the environment. Some forecasts say that the same trend may play out in the metaverse: virtual stores, virtual entertainment venues and the like may appear, customers just need to stay at home and shop with VR glasses. .

Some jobs that never existed may be born. "Before the Internet, do you think there will be KOLs appearing on social networks and making a living from it?", Mr. Kurtoglu said. "With the metaverse, it's likely that a new category of work will begin to take shape."

Current jobs also shift to adapt to a certain extent. For example, a real estate agent can show a customer a virtual version of a property or house before buying it, or a tour guide will provide a virtual version of a land, hotel, room, etc. customers are about to visit.

According to Egan, the environment can also "revive" dead people from their living data, creating bots that interact with living people. “Now, in a virtual environment, you can experience an Albert Einstein lecture, an Elvis concert or a Maya Angelou poem and see them in front of your eyes,” Egan envisions.

In addition, the metaverse can be used for virtual interviews, remote employee training... "The biggest difference when doing the job or training through the metaverse is that the process will be 10 times shorter than when doing the job or training through the metaverse. done via online video," commented Crivello.

Questions about privacy

Along with these utilities, some experts fear the metaverse could give organizations and companies an "exponentially powerful" tool to monitor employees.

"Your boss can see you rolling your eyes, losing focus in a meeting if eye tracking is enabled on your VR headset. Those expressions are all logged," said Kurt Opsahl, supervisor group consultant. privacy Electronic Frontier Foundation, says. "If combined with body temperature or heart rate data from a smartwatch, your boss can infer the current emotional state."

Metaverse can provide organizations and businesses with powerful employee tracking tools. Photo: WSJ

Metaverse can provide organizations and businesses with powerful employee tracking tools. Photo: WSJ

Brian Kropp, chief