The growing demand for immersive experiences is driving the evolution of advanced platforms and technologies.

This is according to GlobalData, which says these innovations are set to transform how people engage with content and their environment, offering captivating virtual worlds and enhancing education, training, and various sectors like healthcare, consumer, retail, automotive, travel & tourism, and gaming.

“The demand for platforms infused with technologies like AR, VR, and mixed reality has been growing across sectors due to their ability to enhance training, consumer experiences, and operational efficiency,” says Saurabh Daga, associate project manager of disruptive tech at GlobalData. “In healthcare, they enable realistic medical simulations, boosting skills and safety.

“E-commerce benefits from interactive product visuals, enhancing decision-making. The automotive sector uses them for design, manufacturing, and customer engagement. In travel and tourism, they enrich tourist experiences. Moreover, immersive platforms are finding greater use in industrial sectors bridging the divide between physical and digital for enterprises.”

GlobalData’s “Immersive enterprise: the sector impact of alternative reality technologies” report delves into over 60 real-life implementations of immersive technologies. The report categorises these implementations based on the end-use sectors and use cases.

GE Healthcare partnered with medtech company MediView XR to create the OmnifyXRTM Interventional Suite System which will integrate mixed reality solutions into medical imaging. The resultant platform combines augmented reality visualisation, remote collaboration, and clinical insights with medical imaging using spatial computing and mixed reality. This collaboration aims to advance the use of augmented reality in clinical settings for improved patient care and medical interventions.

Nestle uses VR for product development, creating and testing virtual prototypes in the metaverse. This streamlines the process, tracks key metrics, and gauges consumer reactions. The consumer goods company has also applied VR to optimise Purina’s pet food division’s shelving and merchandising.

Mercedes-Benz has integrated AR glasses into its Vision One-Eleven concept car. These AR glasses enhance the driving experience by overlaying realtime information, navigation, and contextual data on to the driver’s field of view, creating an immersive heads-up display. This technology aims to improve situational awareness, offer dynamic navigation guidance, and introduce greater interactivity in the vehicle.

“Advanced immersive platforms are poised to revolutionise various sectors,” says Daga. “While these technologies offer substantial benefits in training, consumer engagement and operation streamlining, challenges like high costs, hardware limitations, and data security need to be addressed. Nonetheless, by combining with emerging technologies like AI, enterprises can overcome these challenges, leading to a more engaging and efficient future.”