A lot has been written about the metaverse and the nexus between the physical and digital world in the last year, with much of that focused on the consumer metaverse. Crypto, Blockchain, AR/VR, Avatars, communication and online interactions, trading in digital goods such as NFTs and Facebook’s deep move into the space have all been written about extensively. Less attention has been paid by the press to the industrial metaverse, yet arguably it is the industrial metaverse that will have a far greater impact on our world.
The industrial metaverse has been defined by Microsoft GM Tony Shakib as a collection of capabilities in the intelligent cloud, and on the intelligent edge, working together, that allow a company to connect physical assets and to model anything physical or logical, from simple devices or products to complex environments. Recently, Satya Nadella restated “The same paradigm shifts – the digitization of people, places and things and their interactions – are also happening in the industrial metaverse. We are helping companies optimize their operations and automate, simulate and predict every business function and process, using IoT, Digital Twins, Mesh and the HoloLens platform”. Unlike much of the consumer metaverse, the industrial metaverse is not a concept or a work in progress: it’s a reality, right now.
Cosmo Tech was invited by Natixis to speak about his vision for the industrial metaverse – here are four of the highlights from this talk.