The COVID-19 outbreak challenges businesses across the world and forces them to realize the importance of information technologies. With restrictions, such as social distancing, inability to travel, and disrupted supply chains, companies must adapt. Per a survey done by Grid Raster, 56% of businesses have implemented some form of AR/VR technologies, and another 35% are considering doing so. With COVID-19 accelerating the adoption of other online services, such as zoom, enterprise AR is the obvious next step.
As mentioned in a recent article from the AREA, “Augmented Reality can help mitigate the business impact while supporting business continuity through the pandemic.”
For the utility industry, social distancing can be especially difficult. Frontline workers may not be able to go on-site and maintain issues. This is where technologies such as AR-enhanced remote assistance come into play.
According to Sarah Reynolds, “AR-enhanced remote assistance enables product experts to connect with on-site employees and even end customers to offer them contextualized information and expert guidance, helping them resolve these issues quickly and ultimately reduce downtime. AR-enabled remote assistance marries the physical and the digital worlds – allowing experts and front-line workers to digitally annotate the physical world around them to improve the clarity, precision, and accuracy of their communication and collaboration.”
Similarly, AR can provide assistance to healthcare workers who need medical training or help with equipment changeover. AR-enhanced methods reduce human error – and streamline the otherwise complicated learning process.
As pointed out by the AREA, AR supports remote collaboration. “AR enables users who are physically separated to be able to “inhabit” a shared virtual space, distributed by the AR application.” Although organizations are utilizing video conferencing software, AR is the missing puzzle piece. With many people working from home, one crucial element is missing: collaboration. It is difficult to share information and communicate without face-to-face interaction. By taking advantage of AR, businesses can expand and thrive in the COVID-19 pandemic, and in the future to come.
How do you think COVID-19 will shift the use of digital technologies? Will Augmented Reality fill in the missing pieces for enterprise and e-commerce companies? Leave your thoughts below!
