One of the biggest bets Facebook has made was last year's announcement that it would be putting $10 billion into its metaverse division, "Facebook Reality Labs". In a press release, the company said that it sees AR and VR as being core to “the next generation of online social experiences", and rebranded itself as Meta. So far, it's been off to a bit of a rough start.
When Mark Zuckerberg last bet big, it was on mobile-social. That's proven to have been a very smart move, and powered the companies following hyper-growth. That said, at the time, mobile technology in general already had wide-spread adoption and a broad hardware infrastructure behind it. Adding something to a category is a bit different from category creation - and while there have been variants of the metaverse already in use (Second Life, Pokemon Go, virtual real estate bought on SuperWorld, and others) - Meta's push has been far more ambitious. The company has been pushing the adoption of hardware to enter the metaverse, in the form of its Oculus headsets. While they have been popular amongst a sub-set of gamers and ahead of the curve tech enthusiasts, they have yet to approach the scale of mobile adoption.
That said: if there's b2b sales to be made in a space, there may yet be hope for initiatives like Meta. And talent tech may be part of that mix.
Recent studies found that 59% of surveyed hiring managers and 89% of executives reported difficulty recruiting candidates with the requisite soft skills, such as communication, teamwork, and leadership. And these soft skills are only becoming more essential (and more difficult to develop) as the pandemic pushes people into temporary - or in many cases, permanent - remote work. Without access to in-person training and education, what can businesses do to help their employees develop these vital skills?
A PwC study found that VR students learn four times faster than classroom learners. At scale, it also saves companies money. Despite the upfront investment in technology and hardware, such as goggles and training software, a VR program is cost-competitive with classroom learning with 375 or more participants.
This has pushed companies to take enterprise VR solutions more seriously, and new platforms (including Glue, Engage, and Spatial) were designed specifically for corporate clients. Scott Likens, Emerging Technology Leader for PwC United States, says that there was a bottleneck when it came to creating content, but a number of start-ups are now designing new trainings for different industries, many focusing on soft skills.
The technology is already seeing practical adoptions. A cruise ship company used VR to help its waitstaff learn the location of hundreds of tables in the dining area to ensure food is served seamlessly when onboard. Oil rig workers use VR to commit the oil platform to memory from a safe place before being flown to this fast-moving and often dangerous work environment.
Talespin, a spatial computing company focused on workforce talent development and skills mobility, announced it has raised $20 million in Series C funding. The funding round was co-led by SEEK Investments and Allomer Capital, with participation from additional investors, including Pearson Ventures, Accenture Ventures, Go1, and Sony Innovation Fund.
The workforce and workplace have experienced historic disruption globally, as 'the Great Resignation,' digitalization, and remote work changed the way businesses operate – and how individuals approach their careers. Simultaneous to workforce disruption, the potential business value of the metaverse and "web 3.0," which are a host of new technologies designed to make the internet more immersive and decentralized, are transforming industries ranging from finance to remote collaboration and education.
With immersive learning proven to deliver more engaging and effective learning experiences, enterprises are turning to solutions that leverage immersive technology to rethink how people learn new skills and measure skill competencies, and in turn, puts a new foundation in place for professional development that helps people and organizations keep up with business transformation.