Enterprise

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Strivr Enhances Immersive Learning With Generative AI, Equips VR Training Platform With Mental Health and Well-Being Experiences

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Strivr, a virtual reality training solutions startup, was founded as a VR training platform for professional sports leagues such as the NBA, NHL, and NFL. Today, Strivr has made its way to the job training scene with an innovative approach to employee training, leveraging generative AI (GenAI) to transform learning experiences.

More Companies Lean Toward Immersive Learning

Today’s business landscape is rapidly evolving. As such, Fortune 500 companies and other businesses in the corporate sector are starting to turn to more innovative employee training and development solutions. To serve the changing demands of top companies, Strivr has secured $16 million in funding back in 2018 to expand its VR training platform.

Research shows that learning through VR environments can significantly enhance knowledge retention, making it a groundbreaking development in employee training.

Unlike traditional training methods, a VR training platform immerses employees in lifelike scenarios, providing unparalleled engagement and experiential learning. However, this technology isn’t a new concept at all. Companies have been incorporating VR into their training solutions for several years, but we’ve only recently seen more industries adopting this technology rapidly.

The Impact of Generative AI on VR Training Platforms

Walmart, the largest retailer in the world, partnered with Strivr to bring VR to their training facilities. Employees can now practice in virtual sales floors repeatedly until they perfect their skills. In 2019, nearly 1.4 million Walmart associates have undergone VR training to prepare for the holiday rush, placing them in a simulated, chaotic Black Friday scenario.

As a result, associates reported a 30% increase in employee satisfaction, 70% higher test scores, and 10 to 15% higher knowledge retention rates. Because of the VR training’s success, Walmart expanded the VR training program to all their stores nationwide.

Derek Belch, founder and CEO at Strivr, states that the demand for the faster development of high-quality and scalable VR experiences that generate impactful results is “at an all-time high.”

VR training platofrm Strivr

As Strivr’s customers are among the most prominent companies globally, they are directly experiencing the impact of immersive learning on employee engagement, retention, and performance. “They want more, and we’re listening,” said Belch in a press release shared with ARPost.

So, to enhance its VR training platform, Strivr embraces generative AI to develop storylines, boost animation and asset creation, and optimize visual and content-driven features.

GenAI will also aid HR and L&D leaders in critical decision-making by deriving insights from immersive user data.

Strivr’s VR Training Platform Addresses Employee Mental Health

Strivr has partnered with Reulay and Healium in hosting its first in-headset mental health and well-being applications on the VR training platform. This will allow their customers to incorporate mental health “breaks” into their training curricula and address the rising levels of employee burnout, depression, and anxiety.

Belch has announced that Strivr also partnered with one of the world’s leading financial institutions to make meditation activities available in their workplace.

Meditation is indeed helpful for employees; the Journal of the American Medical Association recently published a study that showed that meditation can help reduce anxiety as effectively as drug therapies. Mindfulness practices, on the other hand, have been demonstrated to increase employee productivity, focus, and collaboration.

How VR Transforms Professional Training

With Strivr’s VR Training platform offering enhanced experiential learning and mental well-being, one might wonder how VR technology will influence employee training moving forward.

Belch describes Strivr’s VR training platform as a “beautifully free space” to practice. Employees can develop or improve their skills in a realistic scenario that simulates actual workplace challenges in a way that typical workshops and classrooms cannot. Moreover, training employees through VR platform cuts travel costs associated with conventional training facilities.

VR training platform Strivr

VR training platforms also contribute to a more inclusive and diverse workplace. Employees belonging to minority groups can rehearse and tailor their behaviors in simulated scenarios where a superior or customer is prejudiced toward them, for instance. When these situations are addressed during training, companies can protect their employees from these challenges and prepare them.

What’s Next for VR Training Platforms?

According to Belch, Strivr’s enhanced VR training platform is only the beginning of how VR will continue to impact the employee experience.

So far, VR training platforms have been improving employee onboarding, knowledge retention, and performance. They allow employees to practice and acquire critical skills in a safe, virtual environment, helping them gain more confidence and efficiency while training. Additionally, diversity and inclusion are promoted, thanks to VR’s ability to simulate scenarios where employees can tailor their behaviors during difficult situations.

And, of course, VR training has rightfully gained recognition for helping teach retail workers essential customer service skills. By interacting with virtual customers in a life-like environment, Walmart’s employees have significantly boosted their skills, and the mega-retailer has implemented an immersive training solution to all of its nearly 4,700 stores all over America.

In 2022, Accenture invested in Strivr and Talespin to revolutionize immersive learning and enterprise VR. This is a good sign of confidence in the industry and its massive potential for growth.

As we keep an eye on the latest scoop about VR technology, we can expect more groundbreaking developments in the industry and for VR platforms to increase their presence in the employee training realm.

Strivr Enhances Immersive Learning With Generative AI, Equips VR Training Platform With Mental Health and Well-Being Experiences Read More »

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A Very Interesting VR/AR Association Enterprise & Training Forum

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The VR/AR Association held a VR Enterprise and Training Forum yesterday, May 24. The one-day event hosted on the Hopin remote conference platform, brought together a number of industry experts to discuss the business applications of a number of XR techniques and topics including digital twins, virtual humans, and generative AI.

The VR/AR Association Gives Enterprise the Mic

The VR/AR Association hosted the event, though non-members were welcome to attend. In addition to keynotes, talks, and panel discussions, the event included opportunities for networking with other remote attendees.

“Our community is at the heart of what we do: we spark innovation and we start trends,” said VR/AR Association Enterprise Committee Co-Chair, Cindy Mallory, during a welcome session.

While there were some bonafide “technologists” in the panels, most speakers were people using the technology in industry themselves. While hearing from “the usual suspects” is nice, VR/AR Association fora are rare opportunities for industry professionals to hear from one another on how they approach problems and solutions in a rapidly changing workplace.

“I feel like there are no wrong answers,” VR/AR Association Training Committee Co-Chair,Bobby Carlton,said during the welcome session. “We’re all explorers asking where these tools fit in and how they apply.”

The Convergence

One of the reasons that the workplace is changing so rapidly has to do with not only the pace with which technologies are changing, but with the pace with which they are becoming reliant on one another. This is a trend that a number of commentators have labeled “the convergence.”

“When we talk about the convergence, we’re talking about XR but we’re also talking about computer vision and AI,” CGS Inc President of Enterprise Learning and XR, Doug Stephen, said in the keynote that opened the event, “How Integrated XR Is Creating a Connected Workplace and Driving Digital Transformation.”

CGS Australia Head, Adam Shah, was also a speaker. Together the pair discussed how using XR with advanced IT strategies, AI, and other emerging technologies creates opportunities as well as confusion for enterprise. Both commented that companies can only seize the opportunities provided by these emerging technologies through ongoing education.

“When you put all of these technologies together, it becomes harder for companies to get started on this journey,” said Shah. “Learning is the goal at the end of the day, so we ask ‘What learning outcomes do you want to achieve?’ and we work backwards from there.”

The convergence isn’t only changing how business is done, it’s changing who’s doing what. That was much of the topic of the panel discussion “What Problem Are You Trying to Solve For Your Customer? How Can Generative AI and XR Help Solve It? Faster, Cheaper, Better!”

“Things are becoming more dialectical between producers and consumers, or that line is melting where consumers can create whatever they want,” said Virtual World Society Executive Director Angelina Dayton. “We exist as both creators and as consumers … We see that more and more now.”

“The Journey” of Emerging Technology

The figure of “the journey” was also used by Overlay founder and CEO, Christopher Morace, in his keynote “Asset Vision – Using AI Models and VR to get more out of Digital Twins.” Morace stressed that we have to talk about the journey because a number of the benefits that the average user wants from these emerging technologies still aren’t practical or possible.

“The interesting thing about our space is that we see this amazing future and all of these visionaries want to start at the end,” said Morace. “How do we take people along on this journey to get to where we all want to be while still making the most out of the technology that we have today?”

Morace specifically cited ads by Meta showing software that barely exists running on hardware that’s still a few years away (though other XR companies have been guilty of this as well). The good news is that extremely practical XR technologies do exist today, including for enterprise – we just need to accept that they’re on mobile devices and tablets right now.

Digital Twins and Virtual Humans

We might first think of digital twins of places or objects – and that’s how Morace was speaking of them. However, there are also digital twins of people. Claire Hedgespeth, Head of Production and Marketing at Avatar Dimension, addressed its opportunities and obstacles in her talk, “Business of Virtual Humans.”

“The biggest obstacle for most people is the cost. … Right now, 2D videos are deemed sufficient for most outlets but I do feel that we’re missing an opportunity,” said Hedgespeth. “The potential for using virtual humans is only as limited as your imagination.”

The language of digital twins was also used on a global scale by AR Mavericks founder and CEO, William Wallace, in his talk “Augmented Reality and the Built World.” Wallace presented a combination of AR, advanced networks, and virtual positioning coming together to create an application layer he calls “The Tagisphere.”

“We can figure out where a person is so we can match them to the assets that are near them,” said Wallace. “It’s like a 3D model that you can access on your desktop, but we can bring it into the real world.”

It may sound a lot like the metaverse to some, but that word is out of fashion at the moment.

And the Destination Is … The Metaverse?

“We rarely use the M-word. We’re really not using it at all right now,” Qualcomm’s XR Senior Director, Martin Herdina, said in his talk “Spaces Enabling the Next Generation of Enterprise MR Experiences.”

Herdina put extra emphasis on computing advancements like cloud computing over the usual discussions of visual experience and form factor in his discussion of immersive technology. He also presented modern AR as a stepping stone to a largely MR future for enterprise.

“We see MR being a total game changer,” said Herdina. “Companies who have developed AR, who have tested those waters and built experience in that space, they will be first in line to succeed.”

VR/AR Association Co-Chair, Mark Gröb, expressed similar sentiments regarding “the M-word” in his VRARA Enterprise Committee Summary, which closed out the event.

“Enterprise VR had a reality check,” said Gröb. “The metaverse really was a false start. The hype redirected to AI-generated tools may or may not be a bad thing.”

Gröb further commented that people in the business of immersive technology specifically may be better able to get back to business with some of that outside attention drawn toward other things.

“Now we’re focusing on the more important thing, which was XR training,” said Gröb. “All of the business cases that we talked about today, it’s about consistent training.”

Business as Usual in the VR/AR Association

There has been a lot of discussion recently regarding “the death of the metaverse” – a topic which, arguably, hadn’t yet been born in the first place. Whether it was always just a gas and the extent to which that gas has been entirely replaced by AI is yet to be seen.

While there were people talking about “the enterprise metaverse” – particularly referring to things like remote collaboration solutions – the metaverse is arguably more of a social technology anyway. While enterprise does enterprise, someone else will build the metaverse (or whatever we end up calling it) – and they’ll probably come from within the VR/AR Association as well.

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A Demo and Fresh Look at Campfire

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For the last few years, Campfire 3D has been expanding the world of “holographic collaboration” with a custom headset and base station as well as software that works in headset-based mixed reality and virtual reality, mobile-based augmented reality, and now on desktop 3D.

The company is currently launching new hardware and a new product package, so we spoke with CEO and co-founder Jay Wright for a software demo and an explanation of the new release.

Gather Around the Campfire

“Our mission is to deliver what we call holographic collaboration – multiple people standing around a digital model of a physical thing, whether they’re all in the same room, or across the world,” said Wright, who called it the killer app for enterprise XR. “If this can be done successfully, we have a huge potential to reduce travel, shipping, and physical reworks.”

And Wright is no stranger to enterprise XR. He developed Vuforia as its vice president at Qualcomm. Qualcomm sold the project to PTC, where Wright followed as Vuforia’s president and general manager. While Wright left Vuforia in 2018, it remains PTC’s main enterprise augmented reality arm.

The following year, Wright co-founded Campfire with Roy Ashok, Alexander Turin, Steve Worden, Yuhan Liu, and XR pioneer Avi Bar-Zeev as founding advisor. Bar-Zeev has worked in XR since 1992 including co-founding Google Earth, serving as a consultant for Linden Labs, a principal architect for Microsoft, advisor for Tilt Five and Croquet, and president of the XR Guild.

In 2021, Campfire came out of stealth and started working with companies offering software, a headset, and a console that generated the virtual model.

A Demo on Desktop

While I haven’t yet gotten my hands on the company’s headset, the team did set me up for a demo on desktop – a major new offering for the tool. Wright did mention that he will be at the Augmented World Expo in a few weeks, so hopefully I’ll be able to try the headset there.

Basic functionalities with basic models include rotating and zooming in on models, and leaving annotations for other viewers to consider. This can be labeling items on the model, or taking screenshots, marking up the screenshot, and pinning it to avoid marking up the model directly.

As long as models are made up of components, they can be “exploded” to view and manipulate those components separately. This also allows users to see how systems are composed of parts through virtual assembly, disassembly, and reassembly. A “blue ghost” shows where selected components fit into a complete system for automatic guided instructions.

Selected components can also be reconfigured with different colors or textures on the fly. They can also be made invisible to make internal components easier to see without using the explode feature. A “slice” tool provides a transparency plane that can be moved through a model to create cross-sections. All of these tools work on all platforms.

“We spent a lot of time on ease-of-use,” said Wright. “The user interface is really similar whether it’s on a flat screen or in VR.”

Additions and Improvements

Today’s announcement includes a streamlined software package, expanded device accessibility, a larger base station option, and a new hardware and software package for teams.

A Cross-Platform Solution

The complete Campfire ecosystem consists of hardware and software. On the hardware side, the company has its own headset – which can be used for augmented reality or with a shaded visor for virtual reality – and two consoles for different-sized models. A phone can be an AR viewer but also serves as a controller for the headset via an adapter called “the pack.”

Campfire headset side

“We did this because everybody has used a phone and knows how to use it,” explained Wright.

One person must have a headset and console but additional participants can join on mobile or now on a desktop.

“Flat screens are still very important,” said Wright. “There are very few workflows in enterprise that involve XR and that don’t involve flat screens.”

That was one of the most consistent pieces of feedback that the company received from early users leading to this announcement. Of course, the different hardware that users join on does impact their experience – though all have access to basic collaboration tools.

“Once everybody is in Campfire, everybody has access to basic tools for pointing at things and communicating,” said Wright. “A huge amount of the power in holographic collaboration is just the ability to point things out in the 3D space.”

A Streamlined Software Offering

The apps were another common point of criticism. Until this announcement, the software side consisted of two separate end-user apps – one for authoring models and one for viewing models and collaborating. Now, one app can do both jobs.

Campfire new app mac car training

Participants can also be invited to a Campfire session via a link, just like 2D remote collaboration tools like Google Docs. This is fitting, as Wright believes that Campfire’s software has even more in common with legacy remote collaboration solutions.

“To the extent that spreadsheets or word documents drove the PC, we think that holographic collaboration does that for XR,” said Wright.

More Ways to View

Campfire launched with a tabletop console, which was great for designing smaller products like shoes, or modeling consumer packaged goods. Of course, virtual models of larger objects can be scaled down, but some users wanted larger models. That’s why Campfire now offers the “studio console” which goes on the floor instead of on a table.

Campfire console

Right now, viewing Campfire in AR or VR requires the company’s custom headset. However, the company is working on optimizing the application for use with the growing number of available passthrough headsets available on the market.

“We don’t see this class of device as something everyone has access to,” said Wright. “But people are going to purchase these devices and expect Campfire to work on them.”

Subscriptions Rolling Out Now

As of today, there are three ways to experience Campfire. First, the application does have a functionally-limited free model. Enterprise plans start at $1,500 per month and currently require contacting the company directly as they scale their public rollout. And now there’s “Campsite.”

Campfire new campsite experience

“Campsite” bundles five enterprise licenses, 2 headsets, packs, and tabletop consoles, and one studio console for $15,000 per year. Wright says that the whole Campsite can be set up in less than an hour.

A Future of Enterprise Collaboration

There are other companies doing parts of what Campfire is doing. And Wright’s argument that this technology is the future is hard to refute. While other companies are likely to step up, this is definitely a company to watch right now. After everything that they learned in the last two years, it’s exciting to think of what improvements this greater rollout will inspire.

A Demo and Fresh Look at Campfire Read More »

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Arthur Releases Productivity and Display Updates

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Arthur, an immersive virtual collaboration platform for enterprise, has recently rolled out its first major set of updates since its “Pro” version launched in 2021. The update brings solutions that are helpful in the platform but that VR in general has needed for a long time.

To learn more about the platform’s growth in the space and the technology coming of age in the enterprise sector, I met in the platform with Arthur Business Development Consultant Lakshman Lattipally. We also showed off our full-body avatars and explored the platform’s many features both old and new.

The Road So Far

Arthur was founded in 2016 but became publicly available in 2020. The platform rolled out its first major updates the following year, which is when ARPost first introduced our readers to the platform. At the time, the company was largely presented as a “virtual real estate company” before that language was adopted by consumer applications in the NFT space.

“We see ourselves as a virtual real estate company. We just provide the office,” Demand Manager Simon Berger told ARPost at the time.

At the time, the company seemed to be doing a new thing – just like everyone else. The main distinguishing feature between Arthur and other solutions in what has since been dubbed “the officeverse” were the avatars featuring a photo-realistic face on a poorly-matched and semi-corporeal frame.

Later that year, the platform’s professional version came out of beta. This version introduced more hosting tools, larger capacity spaces, screen sharing, and other productivity features, and – perhaps the largest differentiator – end-to-end session encryption. The free version still works and you can use it to explore the platform. You can also request a demo of the Pro version.

Recent Improvements

Some of Arthur’s most recent updates are completely new tools, while others are developments building on the platform’s existing tools and features. In either case, all of the updates are great advancements.

New Access Options

Arthur has long had desktop access – a website and an app. The website is a sort of back-end way to manage assets for and from the VR version, similar to an AltspaceVR profile. The app offered many of the conveniences of the website and some of the accessibility of the VR version, similar to the desktop version of ENGAGE.

This update brings an option for users to join virtual environments entirely via browser. There are pros and cons to a browser-based virtual collaboration space over an app. For example, the browser interface allows users to use the platform when they’re away from an office computer with the app installed. But, web users can’t join app sessions. At least, not directly.

VR platform Arthur

One of the big updates that Lattipally showed me was the ability of a VR user to open an Arthur browser window and screen share it with VR users creating an entirely virtual version of a hybrid meeting. The solution was a little disorienting but entirely practical.

Of course, that browser window can be used for other things as well. While the pinboard and note features already provided on the platform can be used to create things like workflows and project management boards, your favorite dedicated tools can exist in-world through browser windows or in some cases through direct app integrations.

Display Updates

After all of the shade thrown on earlier iterations of avatars, they really have gotten a lot better in this most recent update. The avatar creation process still starts with a photograph, but that photograph is better mapped onto a better-proportioned head on a full body – complete with arms and legs. The more responsive faces are even compatible with eye tracking if you’ve got it.

Jon - Arthur VR platform

My favorite update overall might be the MR desk – a feature that I’ve long wanted in every VR productivity app ever. The tool allows you to draw in your physical desktop to appear in your VR space. This process is similar to when you first set up the Quest’s seated play space. However, the desktop isn’t just an opaque rectangle, it’s a passthrough window to your actual desk.

XR Talks with ARPost

Other users can’t see this desk, but you can turn it on and off when you need (or don’t need) to access your computer, notes, or anything else in the physical world while in VR. The obvious downside is that this feature is only as useful as your available passthrough. If you have a Quest 2 (review), this isn’t great. But, if you’re rocking a Quest Pro (info), word is it’s a lot better.

Everything Else Is Still Good

A lot of the quality features that Arthur had before are largely unchanged, and that’s okay. Spaces are still beautiful and easy to set up, complete with private audio zones. The larger main menu is still powerful and navigable, but the smaller menus for things like the notes feature and some basic in-world assets are even easier to use.

Arthur VR

And, maybe this is just me, but I’m a big fan of the desktop user back-end. Taking screenshots in VR is a simple operation and those screenshots are easily accessible from the web profile. Further, user support is great if you need a helping hand.

The New and Improved Arthur

Arthur is holding its own in the developing world of enterprise VR solutions and remains one of the best offerings that I’ve seen in the space.

One of the most enlightening parts of my time in the platform with Lattipally was his stance on the maturity of the space as he says companies are moving from presence to productivity to complete virtual work environments. And Arthur is rising to that challenge.

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Talespin and Pearson Usher in the Future of Work With Ambitious Storyworld

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Talespin is known for using VR in enterprise education – particularly for developing soft skills. Pearson, “the world’s leading learning company,” identified a need – specifically, helping business leaders understand the emerging future of work. Together, the two companies created an elaborate “storyworld” guiding learners through over 30 interactive education modules.

To learn more about “Where’d Everybody Go? The Business Leader’s Guide to the Decentralized Workforce,” we talked with Talespin CEO Kyle Jackson.

The World is Changing

The decentralized workforce is one of those trends that has, to a degree, always been there. With improving connectivity and ever-more portable hardware combined with an increase in the number of “knowledge workers” it’s been growing for a while now. The pandemic accelerated it as businesses that had remained centralized suddenly saw their workforce distributed.

Many workers like the opportunity to work largely when and where they like. Developments in culture and technology generally are making it more appealing and more practical, for example, with new approaches to financial technologies that encourage and facilitate independence – a sort of technologically driven take on rugged individualism.

Some companies have leaned into this massive shift as it can reduce overhead and even increase productivity as well as morale. However, some business leaders have been less able to really attach themselves to the idea which at the same time is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid.

“What we’ve broadly seen in the XR space is lots of single-module learning journeys,” said Jackson. “People just couldn’t do that with this topic.”

Where’d Everybody Go?

To address these challenges, Pearson – with AI analytics company Faethm, which Pearson acquired in 2021 – put together a list of “future human capabilities” that would be required to navigate this new direction in work. Working with Talespin helped to determine the direction of the project early on.

“We looked at that list and overlaid this concept of just how fast work is changing,” said Jackson. “Everybody is leaving jobs and no one can hire anybody – so where did everybody go?”

The experience currently consists of over 30 modules in four thematic tracks:

  • Applying Web3 to Business Strategy and Operations
  • Management and Upskilling
  • Equity and Values of the Modern Workforce
  • Practical Thinking.

There is also an introductory track, which helps learners choose the content that they’re going to work through. The whole experience might take a learner around seven hours to complete, but they don’t need to do it all at once. They don’t even need to do all of it.

“In that intro track you get a kind of choose-your-own-adventure overview,” said Jackson. “If you want to have your leadership team take just one of the tracks, that’s perfectly fine.”

Pearson and Talespin

The “choose-your-own-adventure” aspect comes in through the complex “storyworld” through which the content is delivered. Learners are essentially playing an interactive roleplaying game that helps them practice the topics of each track.

“Learners take on the protagonist’s role of a city commissioner,” reads a release shared with ARPost. “The learner must help local startups and enterprises navigate challenges that real-world businesses face today, like leading hybrid workforces, exploring the adoption of new technology, and instilling equitable workplace practices.”

The experience drew from the expertise and insights of both Pearson and Talespin, who worked closely to create the tracks and modules.

“It’s been very collaborative. Both teams have been in the trenches as a single team,” said Jackson. “We’re definitely more than just the platform in this case where in other cases we’re just the platform and the company is on their own.”

Creating the Experience

The level of involvement from Pearson was no doubt partially enabled by Talespin’s use of their own user-friendly creation tools. These also helped to allow the incredible speed with which the momentous project was realized.

“The idea formed in the middle of last year. Because we built a no-code platform, we really accelerated the product pipeline,” said Jackson. “Our North Star was how do you get the ability to create content into the hands of people who have the knowledge. … The no-code platform was built in service of that but we decided that we had to eat our own dog food.”

Jackson said that for the back-end team that were masters of their previous toolset, using the no-code version was initially frustrating. However, the platform played a large role in launching the experience, which has become a model for future long-form content from Talespin.

“This is the first of several of these that we have coming,” said Jackson. “Even though it’s a new concept to do a storyworld for an immersive learning experience, we’ve had a lot of interest.”

Demystifying Decentralization

Thanks to Talespin, virtual reality – one of the technologies playing a role in the decentralization of work – is helping companies navigate the future of work. This is a big moment for work as we know it, but it’s also a big deal for Talespin, who may have once again revolutionized immersive storytelling as an enterprise education tool.

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Onboarding in the Boardroom: Starting the Conversation on Enterprise VR

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Gaming and social experiences are great uses for virtual reality. However, enterprise VR is also making huge strides to solve big problems in the world of work. Companies that do things like manufacturing, retail management, advertising, and just about anything else have a lot to gain from enterprise VR. But, they don’t always know where to start.

Everyone who runs a business making enterprise VR solutions has to have a decent pitch on why companies should sign on, but there are also some organizations that make onboarding their companies part of the experience.

Finding Direction With Endava

Endava is a tech services provider that helps companies use new technologies to solve problems, increase efficiency, and grow their business models. They aren’t exclusively interested in emerging technologies like extended reality and the metaverse, but they’re seeing a lot of client interest in those fields. And that’s a good thing.

“Don’t wait until the need or the use case is defined because by then you’re just chasing everyone else,” said Scott Harkey, the Executive Vice President of Financial Services and Payments at Endava.

Where to Begin

This often means that companies that do actively want to develop an enterprise VR strategy can be stuck in the awkward position of feeling that they should do something without knowing where to begin. That’s the point where working with a consultancy can help.

“Figuring out where to start is often one of the biggest parts of it,” said Harkey. “That, of course, is different for each organization. But, generally, thinking from a consumer experience perspective helps you focus on what is the problem that you’re actually trying to solve.”

Working with the entire company can help to keep the enterprise VR project on track. Uncertain executives might want to put everything in the hands of their builders, but that can lead to an over-developed and underperforming solution. Putting too much on the executives instead of the builders might hobble the project before it’s begun.

“Individual engineers often get really excited about new tech,” said Harkey. “As you get more senior in the organization, I think they tend to have a more pragmatic view of the technology… they tend to be more conservative with new technologies and want something that is more proven.”

Before proving something, it needs to work. From there, the learning can really begin.

“First it needs to work… It needs to solve the problem. If it’s cool, that’s great. But, does it work?” explained Harkey. “There’s definitely a desire to be experimenting with new tech.”

Gauging Success

Determining whether or not an emerging technology project is successful is a challenging task in enterprise VR. Some in the XR space have even suggested new metrics for XR experiences on the grounds that the way that we track engagement with more conventional media doesn’t do XR justice.

“Definitely experiment. Definitely play with things. There’s no better way to understand how this can impact your business than to play with it,” said Harkey. “But, set the expectations upfront if that’s what you’re doing… If you’re misaligned on the objectives, that’s when you can have a failed experience.”

Those expectations might be things like “engagement” – how many people are accessing the experience, and how long are they using it? However, it can be just as important to understand what they’re doing while they’re in the enterprise VR experience. According to Harkey, some companies use “investigation” as their only metric.

“If I’m doing anything in VR right now and I’m anyone other than Meta, and this is probably true for them too, I don’t really know what I’m doing in VR and I want to see what people engage with,” said Harkey. Harkey added that sometimes experimenting leads to an idea for a more practical or goal-driven solution. “A lot of the time, you’ll see those use cases start to emerge.”

Putting on the Headset With Morpheus

Morpheus is an enterprise VR engagement platform. It started off as a VR events coordinator using AltspaceVR, but has developed into a full-service solution provider with its own virtual world platform and headset distribution arm. And headset distribution is still a big deal.

“We looked at the market and were like, ‘no one has headsets’ so that’s one – that’s the first thing we need to tackle,” CEO Jeffrey Chernick told me during an in-world interview. “We actually send teams headsets and teach them how to use VR. We do one-on-one onboarding with everyone on a team.”

Upon entering the world, before the interview started, COO Jennifer Regan led a “grounding exercise,” acclimating to being in VR. “We are really focused on the least common denominator, which is the first-time user but we also want to make sure that we’re creating enriching spaces for advanced users,” said Regan.

Morpheus enterprise VR platform

Chernick believes that in the next couple of years, as headset adoption picks up, things like hardware distribution will shrink as a part of their business model. Morpheus also works on desktop and mobile devices, and they’re planning on expanding the availability of their enterprise VR application, which is currently only in Quest’s App Lab.

“A huge piece for a lot of corporate HR teams is the employee benefit of giving a headset,” commented Regan. “A Quest 2 gives them access to Supernatural, other fitness apps – there’s other programming that they can at least conceive of using.”

Exploring a Morpheus World

Users can bring their own enterprise VR content into Morpheus, or work with the team to create bespoke worlds. However, the available worlds in Morpheus have a lot to offer already. Some of the settings speak to their earlier days as a “one-off experience” platform but different areas can be built onto one another via a portal system to create vast multi-venue virtual worlds.

“Space is the most valuable tool and we try to maximize its power,” explained president Mikhail Krymov. Krymov is the “chief architect” behind the Morpheus worlds which include sunny knolls, rock gardens, firefly caves, lounges, lecture halls, and ethereal forests.

Interactions and assets come alive in the worlds as well. A hands-in interaction triggers fireworks. “Unofficially the best drinks in VR” slosh in the cup and clink during a toast. A minigame initiates between two avatars wearing boxing gloves. Speakers have their choice between holding a microphone or using a floating microphone that follows them as they move.

“Once you’re in the world, what do you do that’s not just a novelty?” asked Chernick. “No one’s coming in here for a four-person board meeting that they could just do on Zoom.”

These interactions aren’t just fun – they’re exercises in embodiment that help users get comfortable with the feeling of being in virtual spaces. As Regan pointed out, there’s still an “intimidation factor for newer users.” It’s easy to imagine familiar objects, whether fun or practical, helping users feel at home.

Enterprise VR Beyond “The Officeverse”

Enterprise VR solutions that do little more than add depth to a video call have been dubbed “the officeverse.” While those kinds of experiences are a natural way for enterprise companies to dip their toes into the immersive waters, they’re by no means the end of what companies are exploring or what builders are creating.

Onboarding in the Boardroom: Starting the Conversation on Enterprise VR Read More »

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Moth+Flame Launches AI-Powered VR Authoring Tool for Custom Enterprise VR Training Content Creation

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A new VR authoring tool can potentially accelerate enterprise VR adoption this year. Invesco, a global investment firm, recently launched a virtual reality training experience they custom built using the new Moth+Flame’s VR authoring tool. Taking only 72 hours to develop, this custom VR training gives us a glimpse of the vast potential the new VR tool offers.

Moth+Flame VR Authoring Tool Addresses Challenges in VR Content Creation

In one of the most recent PwC surveys of PwC, 51% of companies have built VR into at least one specific line of business or are in the process of integrating VR into their processes. Many companies also see the benefits of VR as an effective way to develop and train people.

While the adoption of VR in enterprises is steadily increasing, enterprises face several challenges that hamper VR integration. Among these are the long development time and the level of expertise needed to create VR content.

Moth+Flame, a VR technology platform that specializes in enterprise-grade immersive learning solutions, addresses some of these challenges to accelerate the adoption of VR.

Ushering a year of great leaps in tech development, Moth+Flame launched a new VR authoring tool that leverages generative artificial intelligence. The new tool allows users to build custom VR content faster and easier. It empowers metaverse content creators and enterprise users to fast-track the development and adoption of VR across industries.

Empowering Novice Users to Create Immersive VR Content

Built on an advanced AI-driven platform, the VR authoring tool generates immersive training content that feels hyper-realistic and engaging. Voice-activated features prompt users to speak to navigate the training scenario. The interactive and immersive experience enhances training as it reinforces learning objectives and improves knowledge retention.

With its user-friendly interface, the platform can be used for VR content creation even by novice users with little or no technical expertise. Drag-and-drop editors and 3D asset libraries help users create high-quality immersive experiences. Multi-user support allows collaboration within teams and among learning and development departments. All these features enable enterprises to revamp existing training or create new ones that are more engaging and effective.

Invesco Uses Moth+Flame VR Authoring Tool to Build VR Training

The Moth+Flame VR authoring tool is still in its beta phase, but it has already shown how it can revolutionize VR use at the enterprise level. Invesco, the first early-access user to bring this technology to workforce development, has shown the benefits the tool brings to enterprise training.

Last week, Invesco launched their new VR training that was built using the Moth+Flame authoring tool. While the average development time for a VR training program is around eight to ten weeks, Invesco was able to build theirs in just 72 hours. Moreover, they were able to create VR content tailored to their specific requirements.

The new VR training is designed to help the Invesco sales team in handling customer complaints and concerns. Sales representatives use VR headsets to practice conversations with customers in realistic simulated scenarios. By adopting the Moth+Flame authoring tool, Invesco can generate other immersive training experiences across their enterprise.

“The biggest challenge for all education is the scale of content creation. So much enterprise training is limited to low-scoring e-learning products because of scale limitations,” said Kevin Cornish, CEO of Moth+Flame. “So much enterprise training is limited to low-scoring e-learning products because of scale limitations. With this tool, enterprises will be able to scale their content creation across all use cases in virtual reality, the most effective training modality available.”

Paving the Way for Rapid Adoption of VR in Enterprises

Invesco, along with other global brands, is now implementing VR training to maximize efficiency in the workplace. With the new VR authoring tool from Moth+Flame, enterprises gain access to advanced technology that empowers them to create immersive VR training. They can easily create VR content and deploy them to their workforce on iOS or VR headsets. With solutions like this authoring tool, we can expect the rapid adoption of VR at the enterprise level across industries.

Moth+Flame Launches AI-Powered VR Authoring Tool for Custom Enterprise VR Training Content Creation Read More »

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A Tour of the Mytaverse Enterprise Immersive World

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There are a number of great virtual world platforms out there – and a smaller number of those are dedicated to enterprise use. And, an even smaller number of those offer the immense graphic fidelity required for some applications. Mytaverse is an enterprise-only platform with special tools for digital twins and virtual assets, and I got the world tour.

What Is Mytaverse?

Mytaverse was founded during the COVID-19 pandemic and has seen its fair share of remote events and virtual work solutions since then. About this time last year, the company hosted a Pepsi-led event focused on innovation that brought over 300 representatives from Google, Adobe, IBM, Salesforce, Amazon, and others into the platform for the first time.

mytaverse map

“Our company is growing rapidly and we’re getting a lot of traction,” Inside Sales Manager, Robert Mc Illece, told me during an in-world interview and platform tour.

The platform isn’t just about remote presence. They acknowledge that the metaverse will never replace in-person. More importantly from the business angle, the metaverse has to replace in-person a lot less frequently now than two years ago. Fortunately, the platform has a way with virtual models – which might have more lasting and varied staying power than virtual people.

The platform has special tools for displaying and viewing virtual models. These can be digital collectibles or digital twins. Companies can bring their own models, or work with the Mytaverse team to build models for use in their applications.

mytaverse toolbox

The digital twins aren’t just viewable, they can also be made to be configurable in real time. Over the course of the interview, I change the exterior colors of model cars – and the interior colors of a model jet while standing inside it.

All of this is made even more impressive by the first major update to the Mytaverse platform, partially funded by a recent $7.6M seed round. The update brought Unreal Engine 5 to the platform (Did we mention that Unreal is a tech partner?), along with a tidy integration with the cross-platform avatar engine Ready Player Me.

Navigating Within the Platform

“We’ve been asked for a long time to incorporate human avatars. We used robot avatars for a long time,” said Mc Illece. “We were going to use Metahuman, but it’s too heavy.”

Those robot avatars are still available for users who don’t already have Ready Player Me, or who don’t want to take the time to make one on the spot. There is a wide selection of body types, and all have a screen-shaped head that can broadcast the webcam of the user – sort of like the robots from the Saga comic series.

Mytaverse avatars

It’s natural for Mytaverse team members to have a soft spot for the robot avatars, and it’s natural for them to want to team up with their partners at Unreal. However, there’s a sense that Ready Player Me lends a sense of identity because of how universal the avatars are becoming. For example, I used the same avatar in this interview as I used in a recent tour of Spatial.

No matter which avatar system you use, emotes are provided ranging from the practical, like waving a hand, to a softkey for dancing a jig. The avatar is controlled by standard WASD controls on a computer or by touch on a mobile device. Need to get somewhere fast? Hop on a hoverboard, teleport short distances, or pull up to “beam” in between locations on campus.

mytaverse emojis

The entire experience is browser-based and hardware-agnostic made possible by cloud computing (AWS is also a partner). So far, “hardware-agnostic” doesn’t include headset support – though that’s on the schedule for the second half of next year. What’s the holdup? A lot of headsets don’t yet have the display quality to keep up with Mytaverse graphics.

“We don’t want to dumb down our graphics for a headset,” said Mc Illece.

Enterprise-Only

Writing reviews of platforms like Mytaverse is almost a little sad. I was really impressed by my tour of the platform. And, I hope to be invited back for some remote event or another. However, this is an enterprise platform so a lot of readers might never get a look. But, that’s fair, as the platform brings a slew of top-shelf tools that enterprise users need more than casual users.

A Tour of the Mytaverse Enterprise Immersive World Read More »