WGSN: Metaverse to unlock creative boom

The advent of the metaverse will see the unlocking of a new creative boom, and this will form the basis of a new set of opportunities for a new workforce to create new environments.

This was shared by forecasting and insight company WGSN at their Consumer Tech Live event on the trends of 2024, which also covered topics such as the potential audience for consumer tech as well as how the metaverse and tech will affect living and working choices.

According to the trend-watcher, the biggest sector in consumer tech will be the caregiver industry, with global employment in care jobs set to grow. This is due to the aging populations that are affecting some of the world’s most populated countries, with nations in Asia and Africa facing population aging issues.

As a result, countries will have to invest in the infrastructure of care to maintain economic sustainability, as the average age of workers trends upwards and new workers to the workforce are unable to replace the numbers of those leaving.

Those of a higher age group will also serve as drivers of the care infrastructure and the care economy, with the group labeled as “guardians”, one of the four personas of the consumer tech audience in 2024.

WGSN shared that members of this persona will also be knowledge-driven, both in terms of learning for the purposes of upskilling and staying relevant, as well as in imparting knowledge to the next generation.

Then there are the “rethinkers”, formed by those who have gone through the process of rethinking their priorities, and are empowered to take charge of what their work means to them. This includes taking the option to openly reject social expectations to excel at the expense of mental health, such as those of the “tang ping” or Lie Flat movement in China.

Creating and the metaverse

Another persona is one that comes about as part of the Great Resignation, a phenomenon that has reached Asia. This group, known as “creators”, form an economy that has a valuation of trillions of dollars. Though content creators such as writers, streamers, and visual arts creators are part of this, the group also encompasses entrepreneurs that form startups.

According to the trend-watching firm, this is an alteration to the landscape, with India listed as an example of pivoting to a nation celebrating startups, leapfrogging past other nations during the Covid-19 pandemic, as entrepreneurs break away from employment to set up their own businesses and startups.

The final persona is that of the “dreamer”, which WGSN identifies as those who will be the “masters of the metaverse”, able to move between the material and the digital world seamlessly, and part of the new workforce that can capitalise on the opportunities of the metaverse.

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