Panel discussion moderated by Sophie Schimanskyr, deputy editor-in-chief, Forbes DA, on whether you should first develop a Metaverse strategy or dive in heads on and explore the opportunities that your customers value.
Panelists from left
- Antonio Arcidiacono, CTO & CIO, European Broadcasting Union
- Sarah Schlagenhauf, CEO & Founder, ArtDeal AG
- Martand Srivastava, Emerging Technologies Leader, APAC, Lenovo
- Alissa Alekseeva, Head of Marketing, ArtMeta
- Dr. Guenter Dobrauz, Partner & Leader, PwC Legal Switzerland
- Christian Moser, Head of Digital Experiences, Zühlke Group
Christian Moser: It’s a good thing that AI took the center stage of the general hype. Because now customers can focus on productive use cases without the public pressure.
Still, productive systems may be 10 to 15 years away…
Guenter Dobrauz: Yes, exploring is an important measure to test and learn the ins and outs of new developments, since in the pioneering phase there are no rules nor guidelines. The Metaverse is no exception.
It’s crucial to learn the legal implications early on.
Sarah Schlagenhauf: Yes, exploration is first. Only once you understand the underlying principles can you develop a strategy.
Alissa Alekseeva: 50% of Metaverse users are under 18 years old. That’s mainly because today most applications involve gaming.
At ArtMeta they want to go beyond reality, they want immersive experiences in virtual worlds that need to be fresh, yet familiar enough to still know what to do.
Christian Moser: Shapes and physics formed the objects in real worlds. The Metaverse is different. AR is a medium in between. VR can go beyond that.
Martand Srivastava: The Metaverse is not a medium that will add value creation to all use cases, you have to be selective and adaptive.
Today there are 3 main buckets of use cases: Enterprise, industrial and gaming Metaverses.
VR trainings are an obvious use case with large enterprises that will easily generate value.
Collaboration is also an important use case.
Antonio Arcidiacono: Exploration of new tools lets you discover new applications of tools like games or the blockchain.
Media companies are very interested in learning what future consumption of media content will look like.
Sarah Schlagenhauf: The «Metaverse» is a very generic term. You have to zero in what you are trying to achieve. Web3 may be a relevant add-on as well as NFTs. Because most Metaverse experiences today are lame.
Antonio Arcidiacono: The European Broadcasting Union took 30 media companies› content to mix and match thanks to automated translations. Interestingly these trusted sources combine nicely with user comments. AI filters out relevant messages and offers them up in a new mashup.
Other than that, all their 3D endeavors flopped so far. Consumers don’t want to consume media with a headset strapped to their face.
Alissa Alekseeva: A Metaverse strategy needs to answer what problem you are solving. Second Life was a Metaverse that didn’t stick. People checked it out but didn’t stay.
You need to consider services/products that you can take with you, even when you leave the Metaverse.
Christian Moser: Today many solutions come from a technical perspective but don’t adress user needs properly.
We have not yet seen the «iPhone moment» or the «ChatGPT moment» for the Metaverse. But it will come at some point, we just don’t see yet in what shape.
Martand Srivastava: The devices are not ready today for wide adoption.
Micron is using the technology in semiconductor facilities for planning and training in order to avoid downtimes.
Hence, in industrial setups the Metaverse is a very real solution adding value today. But in the consumer environment we are not there yet.
Antonio Arcidiacono: The media industry learns from their millions of users. If anything, they want to learn from users in order to develop their products.
Yet, people were not ready for the first generation of wireless internet in planes.
Guenther Dobrauz: The circular economy is one of the ways we can help the planet. If we could bring parts of this concept and ESG into the Metaverse and their young users, we could help the climate a lot.
Antonio Arcidiacono: Are we certain we want everybody to stare into their headset and go purely digital? This might kill humanity alltogether if we don’t go phygital, i.e. we combine physical and digital experiences in a mixed reality.
