West Monroe surveyed the C-suite to gauge the potential business implications of the metaverse. Here’s what they told us: Most leaders believe there is business value in the metaverse for their companies as well as their industries. Their organizations are already exploring related technologies, such as mixed reality, for both their employees and their customers/end-users—or plan to in 2022. Still, most executives aren’t ready to start meeting and working in mixed-reality environments.
While one-fifth of executives (20%) say they are “excited” about the metaverse as a broad concept, most (56%) are “cautiously optimistic.” But even those who aren’t all in think there’s business potential. A supermajority of execs see some or significant future business value in the metaverse for their industry (88%) or their company (86%) in the next one to five years—although this perceived business value varies by industry, company size, and title.
The metaverse holds money-making potential for businesses and industries.
Leaders feel “mixed reality” or “extended reality” technology (augmented reality/AR; virtual reality/VR; holograms) are more valuable for customer-facing applications—but many organizations are also exploring this tech for their employees.
Organizations are considering metaverse-related technologies for both employees and customers.
Despite executives’ optimism and excitement about the potential of the metaverse, the majority (57%) of respondents believe meeting and collaborating in person, in shared offices and workspaces, is most effective.
The C-suite still wants to meet and collaborate in the “real world,” not in a metaverse-like environment—for now, anyway.
2-Minute Takedown