How Virtual Reality Is Transforming Businesses

Ever since digital adoption has picked up the pace, immersive technologies have gained prominence. Virtual Reality receives a special mention and it is now leading the new era of new-age businesses. The pandemic had a major role to play in the adoption of immersive technologies especially Virtual Reality in businesses across sectors. Ever since then, it has been marking its presence across sectors.

COVID-19 Impact on VR

COVID-19 stamped a great impact on all businesses. The pandemic initially led to a decline in the physical presence or interactions but eventually paved the way for digital and virtual interactions. However, all the industries were looking to fit in the virtual space and cope with the disruptions. For instance, education driven by Virtual Reality paved the way for enhancing the teaching-learning processes and providing students with high-end educational experiences. For the healthcare industry, it is worth looking into because Virtual Reality helped train healthcare professionals and practitioners on various medical and operating procedures.

Virtual Reality: The new-age viable solution for businesses

In practicality, the solution is helping reduce the need for manual labor and human intervention thereby optimizing the workflow and enhancing operational efficiency. The technology is now finding its way to increase the scale of use. It is helping businesses tread the path of growth and digitization in the truest sense! Businesses across sectors, on the whole, have been able to optimize their workflow and offer high-end customer experiences with Virtual Reality.

Application of VR across industries

In India, the rate of adoption of Virtual Reality is scaling up and leading the next generation into the technical era. Thus, it is a part of many industries like gaming, education, retail, etc. just to name a few, and has been rendering a helping hand in enhancing the growth of the business.

Enhancing brand-consumer relationships in the retail sector

The concept of online shopping has picked up pace significantly over the period of time. Hence, various brands are keen to build and introduce VR so as to offer seamless online shopping experiences to their consumers. Be it creating personalized experiences, fostering deeper engagement, or ensuring customer satisfaction; Virtual Reality has been helping them in various aspects. Retailers have been able to reduce operational costs, drive sales and garner greater ROI due to Virtual Reality. As a result, shoppers now have access to safe, immersive, and engaging shopping experiences.

Stimulating designs in the manufacturing segment

In the manufacturing industry, the industry players are benefitted as the technology helps reduce manual labor and labor injuries by creating an easy working environment with heavy machinery. The advent of robots is indeed one of the noteworthy applications of VR in the manufacturing industry. The sector empowers the manufacturers to stimulate their design prototypes and models on VR software. This helps them rectify errors or malfunctions at an early stage thereby reducing production time and cost. (Also add how VR can help in training the workforce.)

Upscaling the healthcare segment

The healthcare segment is one of the prominent sectors in our country. Virtual Reality’s application in this market is helping in offering high-end healthcare and instant medical facilities to the patients. With the emergence of telehealth and telemedicine, healthcare practitioners are able to treat patients effectively despite geographical barriers. VR has also helped patients get access to superior healthcare services that too at an affordable pricing. Furthermore, it is due to Virtual Reality that the connected devices in the healthcare sector have increased exponentially.

Boosting sales and driving innovation in the automotive sector

Virtual Reality’s application in the automotive sector has been equally significant. It helps boost sales for car manufacturers and dealers in the online space. The emergence of virtual showrooms, customers exploring the products in the 3D space, online test drives have been possible due to Virtual Reality’s adoption in the automotive sector. Various leading automotive brands have been using this advanced solution from an early age and the others are gradually following suit. The industry players have been able to save operational costs and time by reducing the number of expensive prototypes. The technology also instills innovation by allowing engineers and designers to experiment with their design of vehicles.

Seeking entertainment remotely

VR in the entertainment industry offers high-end memorable experiences to audiences. Virtually visiting museums, art galleries, and concerts has been possible due to Virtual Reality’s application in the entertainment industry. Consequently, entertainment has become enjoyable and realistic even in the virtual zone and people can now seek enjoyment without being physically present.

Realistic and social experiences in the gaming sector

Virtual Reality is all about realistic experiences. It is tremendously trending in the gaming culture and offers various benefits to the industry. VR in the gaming sector offers a 360-degree view of the ground thereby offering high-end viewing experiences to the audiences. They can now watch the match or the game without visiting the venue right from the comfort zone of their homes. The live streaming enabled by VR further adds the social attribute to the gaming experience.

Offering requisite training

Training is a prerequisite in any business across any sector. Over the years, the training process has changed drastically in terms of cost-effectiveness and emergency protocol as now VR Training is easily available and accessible. We can now have hands-on learning by experiencing and feeling elements of our physical environments similar in the virtual space. Thus, now training has become interactive, engaging, and effective due to Virtual Reality.

The progressive future of VR in India

VR has successfully forayed into businesses across industries. This trend will pick up pace in the times ahead as well. According to the report of Counterpoint Research, the potential growth of AR and Virtual Reality is expected to grow 10 times by 2025. As per the Artillery Intelligence report, VR will reach up to 25% of the internet users who will be using VR by 2023. According to Market Watch, the global Virtual Reality market size is estimated to reach $ 7958.3 million by 2026, at a CAGR of 19% during 2021-2026. The APAC region, especially India, is an emerging market. All these statistics point out the fact that Virtual Reality seems to have a progressive future. Businesses both Indian as well as at the global level are increasingly adopting Virtual Reality and will be keen to embrace this as a solution in the times to come as well.

Summing Up

Virtual Reality has made our life easier and enabled smooth business operations. Hence, associating with the VR solutions providers is the next logical step after we have made up our minds to adopt the Virtual Reality path. For business leaders looking to leverage VR, unless they have strong in-house capabilities, it makes sense to work with a digital innovation partner who can take care of end-to-end strategy, execution, and support to ensure companies do not have to deal with overheads related to sourcing and training talent, and can also keep costs down. Driven by a top-notch team of developers with deep expertise in technology, partners can help enterprises achieve their business objectives quickly, as well as transform them digitally!

The above article is authored by Nilesh Jahagirdar, Co-Founder, [x]cube Labs.