How Augmented Reality Can Transform Enterprises

One of the most sought-after technologies in enterprises today is Augmented Reality as it holds promise for a smarter working process. The success of the Pokémon app is evidence of its success and is unlikely to stop there. A research featured on Digi-Capital stated mobile AR alone will drive $108 billion of the VR/AR market by 2021. Analysts are bullish about the usefulness of the technology, especially in its ability to help businesses in making their staff more productive.

At present, many companies are exploring AR. Apple CEO Tim Cook has expressed his interest in the technology and said: “VR will be big, AR will be bigger and take longer.” Its tech rival, Samsung, has added AR as a camera feature on their latest smartphones through Bixby Vision that can identify objects in real-time and then research on various services. O2 explained that it works as ‘the Galaxy S8 Plus’ one-stop dashboard’ where it can be a personal assistance and information service to make it easy to do what you want, when you want it. Indeed, a growing number of companies are now looking at innovative ways to maximize AR.

In this post, we will highlight how other industries can exploit augmented reality and its associated technologies in the near future.

Remote Monitoring & Guidance

With augmented reality around, businesses can cut down costs in travelling and make their employees omnipresent. When working remotely, field managers will be able to assist their staff and analyse relevant information (i.e. manuals or instructions) by wearing AR glasses or using smartphone with AR as if they are there.

The technology also promotes multi-tasking, as it allows the worker’s hands to be free. Managers can also monitor their staff remotely while staying in the office and finishing other tasks. This can enhance productivity in the office that can help uplift the overall performance of the business.

Enhanced Training

When it comes to training and education, AR has a lot of promise. It can revolutionise education, especially for children, by making learning interactive, experiential, present, and gamified. Augmented reality can help students learn better, whatever age group they may fall in.

Unlike in the real-world scenario, trainees can use AR to play though a situation as many times as they need to be able to grasp a concept or a procedure. Learning can also be a lot more elaborate, as it’s far simpler and safer to have someone take a virtual car engine apart than a real one.

Improved Customer Care

The technology has the potential to make life easier for customer-facing employees, especially those working in the retail industry. For example, a make-up sales agent could leverage AR glasses to help customers in purchasing cosmetics that best suits them as well as present to potential customers how they look using the products virtually.

There are retail stores that have already maximised AR via tablets. Lowe’s allow customers to explore 3D models of custom-designed bathroom suites to give buyers an idea of how it looks like in their home.

New Ways of Working

Beyond assisting remote staff efficiently and cost-effectively, AR headsets could also change the ways people work. Gartner research director Brian Blau gave an example of how to explore AR for business through a loss adjustor from an insurance company that is examining a car accident. The adjustor will be able to examine the car wreckage thoroughly and accurately via an AR headset that feeds a video that recognises the damage and estimates the cost for repair.

Similarly, in the medical industry, the technology will be able to revolutionise how physicians diagnose and treat illnesses by capturing symptoms during the examinations and place relevant medical information in the user’s view.

Currently, augmented reality is still in its infancy and there are a lot of transformations before it can be a secured and revolutionary platform in enterprises. Nevertheless, its potential to make business processes smarter is already catching the interest of many industries from medical to field jobs. We hope to see more businesses embracing AR soon, and look forward to monitoring the many developments.

Exclusively written for INDE
by TechandJB