A study commissioned by Nokia and Ernst & Young (EY) reinforces Nokia’s vision that the industrial metaverse is an extension of Industry 4.0.
The study surveyed 860 business leaders across six countries. In terms of geography, it showed the U.S. (65%), the U.K (64%). and Brazil (63%) leading the way in terms of companies that have deployed or piloted at least one industrial or enterprise metaverse use case.
It was a different story in Germany (53%), and Asia Pacific was even farther behind, with Japan and South Korea each at 49%,
Companies that have already deployed industrial metaverse use cases are seeing more reported benefits than those still in the planning phase expect, notably in the areas of capital expenditure reduction (15%), sustainability (10%) and safety improvement (9%), according to the study.
“It is great to see that companies clearly believe in the power of the metaverse for business value creation in both enterprise and industrial use cases,” said Thierry Klein, president of Bell Labs Solutions Research at Nokia, in a statement. “This strongly aligns with our vision, informed by more than eight years of research at Nokia Bell Labs, that the Industrial Metaverse is an extension of Industry 4.0. Consequently, those who have already implemented mission-critical communications networks for Industry 4.0 are now well placed to experience the benefits of the metaverse that clearly some companies are already seeing.”
Simply put, the report defines the metaverse as a fusion of the digital and physical worlds. The industrial metaverse, according to Nokia, is characterized by physical-digital fusion and human augmentation focused on industrial applications. That includes digital representations of physical industrial environments, systems, processes, assets and spaces that participants can control, monitor and interact with.
The study looked at these industry sectors: automotive; industrial goods and manufacturing; transportation, supply chain and logistics; and power and utilities.
Enterprises identified the metaverse’ highest potential in the use of extended reality for training to onboard and “upskill” the workforce, while three out of the four industries surveyed chose the use of virtual R&D to enhance product design and processes as the use cases they most expect to deliver transformative value.
Only 2% of respondents see the metaverse as a buzzword or a fad, while 58% of companies with future metaverse plans have already deployed or piloted at least one metaverse-related use case. Nearly all (94%) of those who have not yet begun their journey to the metaverse plan to do so in the next two years.
Cloud computing (72%), AI/ML (70%) and network connectivity, including private 5G/6G (70%), fiber broadband (68%), as well as public 5G/6G (67%), are seen as most important key technical enablers to metaverse use cases.