Virtual reality may still be correlated with gaming in the average consumer’s mind, but VR is not limited to a single domain or vertical. It has already become popular in various industry sectors such as healthcare, travel, education, and business, and provides unique and valuable benefits to each. (Related: VR medical training, AR to teach anatomy, virtual reality medical education)
Businesses are turning to newer and more innovative techniques to incorporate VR into their routine business processes in order to make operations more productive, efficient, and economical.
Digital work is becoming the new norm in the business world, so it’s not surprising that VR is being utilized at higher rates in order hold “face-to-face” meetings from different locations. Within virtual reality, you can conference with colleagues, clients, and even job candidates, and you can “see” the other person and watch their reactions and body language, as if they were physically present in the same room. Allowing business owners to cut travel costs, VR is the perfect bridge between a regular conference line or phone call (where you can be sure they are texting or working and not fully listening to you) and an in-person meeting.
Professional development and on-the-job training can be an expensive, although essential, part of any career. But in-person trainings aren’t necessarily imperative anymore. Recorded trainings are already quite common, but moving employee trainings and seminars into a virtual space can help drastically cut education costs, and the immersive, interactive nature of educational VR helps participants mitigate distractions and concentrate at a higher level. The applications for virtual or mixed reality training are endless. Doctors, firefighters, pilots, marketers, machine workers, retail workers and more can all benefit from training with virtual reality.
If your company manufactures or sells products, utilizing VR to promote your products can dramatically revolutionize your marketing and sales strategies. Giving new meaning to the “try it before you buy” concept, VR allows business owners to give their customers a much more enhanced user experience. Travelers can walk through a hotel before ever stepping foot in the physical building. Shoppers can virtually try on clothing or place furniture within their own home to see how it looks before buying it. Contractors and designers can build a kitchen or bathroom, walk through it, and make changes before ever picking up a single nail. Virtual reality experiences can enhance all kinds of on-site events for users so it’s understandable why they are increasingly becoming the ultimate marketing tool.