AR/VR are coming-of-age with a GDP potential of $1.5t by 2030

THE FUTURE of work will be augmented and virtually enhanced as technology solutions are fast maturing and have evolved against their limitations thanks to the development of other digital capabilities.

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are among prominent technologies that have impacted industrial processes and business operations for quite some time but have recently gained more traction as maturing capabilities.

While admittedly, they are not brand new, AR and VR will dramatically gain importance and relevance thanks to advances like cloud technology, artificial intelligence, the internet of things, as well as 5G.

In fact, a recent report has revealed that AR and VR are expected to contribute up to US$1.5 trillion in GDP, boosting the global economy tremendously by 2030. In other words, these technologies will bolster the overall global GDP by 1.8 percent.

AR, in particular, will deliver a whopping US$1.1 trillion whereas VR will chip in US$ 0.4 trillion. Countries such as the USA, China, and Japan are projected to contribute the most to the GDP boost at US$537 billion, US$183.3 billion and US$143.2 billion respectively.

The technologies have had a consistent presence in the last few years, holding a market value of US$11.35 billion in 2017.

Although 2030 is 10 years away, the figure marks a significant feat and highlights how ingrained these solutions will continue to be in the years to come.

AR and VR will also extensively supplement the job market in the next 10 years which implies that these capabilities will also boost human capital.

The solutions are expected to enhance the job market by creating nearly 7 million opportunities in China, 2.3 million in the USA, about 400 million in Germany and the UK, lastly, in Japan with over 500 000 jobs.

However, these projected feats would not be possible without the extension of other developing and improved technologies.

For instance, 5G connectivity will enable a new variety of business use cases and largely augment retail processes as well as real-time process improvement initiatives in manufacturing plants.

Not only that, the low-latency connection will significantly revolutionize how utility employees repair equipment and manage assets in challenging weather conditions without jeopardizing safety.

Most importantly, with 5G, VR headsets will be no longer need to have built-in storage, processing, and power capacity as those functions can be moved to the cloud, resulting in reduced cost of production and maintenance.

Pairing AR and VR with cloud technology will also signify the increased reliability of the technologies in training and development.

Trainers can design a bigger selection of learning modules to be loaded onto the hardware in real-time without worrying about storage and processing capacities.

It’s important to pay attention to other solutions that will help AR and VR deliver their values in the business world. That’s the reality.

Nevertheless, it is important to start planning now to understand how best to deploy AR and VR solutions with a clear goal in mind so that untapped business segments can be identified ahead of other industrial peers.

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