5 Myths You Shouldn’t Believe About the Industrial Metaverse

As part of Solutions Review’s Contributed Content Series—a collection of articles written by industry thought leaders in maturing software categories—Rob McGreevy, the Chief Product Officer at AVEVA, debunks a few of the myths surrounding the realities and potential of the industrial metaverse.

By some accounts, the metaverse appears to have had the shortest hype cycle of any new technology to date. Although some significant brands have changed their approach to focus on other goals, practical use cases around foundational metaverse technologies are already delivering results in the enterprise world. In fact, McKinsey estimates that the metaverse could pave the way for a tremendous value spurt of around $5 trillion by 2030. 

Confusion arises because the metaverse and its applications are still evolving. It took several years for some people to understand the innumerable uses of the internet and the worldwide web. Similarly, the metaverse remains hard to pin down for the general public. 

In the business world, however, the potential of the industrial metaverse is already apparent, and its development hasn’t slowed. Companies will experience this industrial metaverse as an always-on world where real factories, machines, data, and people are connected virtually. And the first to reap its benefits will be digital businesses. So, where is the industrial metaverse now? Let’s look at some of the most common myths. 

Myth: The industrial metaverse is just virtual reality. 

Virtual reality is only technology within the industrial metaverse. Others include augmented reality, cloud computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI). Although it is still being defined, the industrial metaverse is a collaborative and immersive digital environment that users can control and develop. It blends the physical and digital worlds to support manufacturing, energy, and infrastructure innovation. From modeling and prototyping new designs to simulations of physical deployments and extended reality in the field, the industrial metaverse will incorporate many different technologies to support a wide range of use cases.  

Myth: One company owns the industrial metaverse. 

While there may be frontrunners leading the development of metaverse technologies, many companies are involved at different levels. In truth, each organization can create its own industrial metaverse—this could be the collection of its operational assets or simply a representation of each asset individually. Companies building out a new industrial metaverse can build custom solutions (using dedicated development kits and application programming interfaces) on top of plug-and-play software. What’s clear is that access to this metaverse will be strictly controlled with role-based privileges and security protection in the same way financial systems are currently protected. In short, each business will own and control its industrial metaverse. 

Myth: You can only access the industrial metaverse with a VR headset. 

Recognizing that the industrial metaverses will extend beyond AR/VR headsets is essential. Instead, it will be available and accessible on smartphones, tablets, and desktops. To collaborate in the industrial metaverse, workers must be able to use any device they want, connect to the necessary software, view trustworthy data from their digital twin, and cooperate in one shared application.

In some use cases, office workers and colleagues at the plant may interact within the same virtual environment—but one may use a tablet and ear pods while the other wears an XR headset. Furthermore, everyday devices may soon host new immersive technologies, just as biometrics are embedded in today’s smartphones. Simply put, multiple devices will enable entry to each company’s metaverse, much like workers use company software from their laptops, mobile phones, and tablets.  

Myth: This metaverse is years away and is extremely expensive to develop. 

In many ways, the industrial metaverse deploys existing technology over new hardware and in new ways. The industrial metaverse is about using a reliable and consistent digital twin driven by industrial data and AI-infused capabilities to deliver a seamless, connected, multi-person experience. With these three elements, the industrial metaverse is a natural layer that organizations can deploy on top of their existing digital infrastructure to future-proof their businesses. 

Myth: The metaverse is only for gamers. 

While gaming is the most popular use case for the metaverse in general, it is only one potential use case. By surfacing the enormous value of design, construction, and operations data from the trusted digital twin to create genuine collaboration at the enterprise level, the metaverse has broader applications in areas such as education and healthcare, as well as innumerable industries, including manufacturing, oil and gas, and critical infrastructure, contrary to popular belief. 

Current use cases for industrial metaverse technologies—including extended reality (XR) and the digital twin—lie in maintenance and repair, industrial design and prototyping, quality control in manufacturing, collaboration, communication, and workforce training. For example, companies such as Starbucks Coffee already use an integrated HMI and SCADA platform to view production and inventory data from the shop floor to the top floor, supporting holistic decisions. 

Similarly, digital twin solutions—i.e., virtual replicas of physical assets or facilities—have improved operational efficiency via cloud collaboration, slashing time to market by over 50 percent for Norway’s Aker Carbon Capture. Elsewhere, the North Carolina-based electric and natural gas company Duke Energy has leveraged AI solutions to save millions of dollars through reduced failures, including a saving of $34 million from a single early catch event. 

The Way Forward for the Industrial Metaverse 

For those still questioning the development of the metaverse, it’s worth asking why we didn’t see that Tim Berners Lee’s hypertext invention at CERN would irreversibly change our entire society—and where the companies that refused to embrace the web revolution are today. 

The industrial metaverse is being built on well-proven technologies. It will initially become available as extensions to internet browsers and messenger apps as newer use cases are developed and rolled out. By improving how we work together, the industrial metaverse remains a potent force for value gains.