The Big List of Virtual Reality Applications for the Enterprise

Virtual reality now stands at a precipice.

While the technology is finally ready to achieve the levels of immersion and presence that enthusiasts have yearned after for years, most of the public still believes VR to be a fad, despite the positive sales figures suggesting otherwise. As I’ve written before, the success of VR hinges upon convincing both the consumer sector and the enterprise sector that they stand to win from VR.

Meanwhile augmented reality, the sister tech to virtual reality, is expected to grow much larger in the long-term, particularly in the returns-driven enterprise sector where the novelty factor of VR isn’t likely to carry it as far. However, the myth that only AR will have a place in the businesses of the future is just that: a myth. Indeed, there are a number of use cases where professionals stand to gain far more by transporting themselves to a digital world than by simply enhancing the real one:

Productivity and Training

• Virtual meetings: VR will bring an unprecedented sense of presence to remote meetings, rendering Skype meetings obsolete.
• Virtual offices for remote teams: the advent of VR offices will make remote working the new standard for many global startups
• Fully virtual desktop: the ability to simulate a multi-monitor setup in VR will enhance many workers’ productivity dramatically
• Human resources exercises: the combination of VR and AI will enable HR managers to create and run immersive exercises for employees to better tackle workplace discrimination, harassment, and more
• On-the-job training: just about any kind of OTJ training, but particularly blue-collar work, can be undergone safely and cheaply in VR
• Emergency simulations: employees exposed to immersive simulations will be better-prepared against fires, natural disasters, and medical crises
• Safety training: managers will be better-equipped to teach proper safety techniques to employees in harmless virtual environments
• Applicant testing: recruiters will be able to subject prospective employees to immersive tests in VR, in order to better judge their capabilities in action

Academia and Research

• Virtual experiments: simulations will allow researchers to conduct an infinite number of trials of what may otherwise be costly experiments, and in a virtual environment better observe their outcomes
• Improved ecological validity: experiments involving real-world locations or scenarios will be more realistic in VR, with more applicable results
• Broader experimentation: many experiments involving human subjects that cannot be done due to ethics or safety concerns will be possible in VR
• Molecule visualization: researchers will find it much easier to manipulate and visualize molecular shapes in a virtual environment

Real Estate

• Virtual walkthroughs: immersive 3D simulations of buildings still under construction can be used not only to assist contractors and construction workers, but also to plan details such as furnishings and paint
• Marketing walkthroughs: scans of existing rental spaces, complete with high-quality furnishings, can be used as effective marketing tools for potential tenants
• More efficient mockups: construction mockups can be created, reviewed, and edited at sub-millimeter precision much more quickly and cheaply than physical mockups
• Remote inspection: volumetric VR scans of construction sites during work hours can allow inspectors to examine sites for regulatory compliance and safety, without having to make a trip
• Facility tours: companies can offer tours of their workplaces in VR, helping to attract potential clients or even new recruits

Manufacturing and Design

• Facility design: manufacturers will be able to design production facilities within VR, allowing them to better optimize assembly assembly processes for efficiency and speed
• Retail design: retailers will be able to simulate and edit store layouts, optimizing qualities like display location and lighting for more sales
• Collaborative creation: remote design teams and manufacturers will be able to develop prototypes together in collaborative virtual environments
• Virtual manufacturing reviews: products and manufacturing processes can be closely examined and modified before any expensive tooling
• Product demonstrations: designers can create immersive product demos and marketing experiences for clients in VR
• Prototype testing: focus groups can try out prototypes in a virtual setting, allowing them to give designers more detailed and valid feedback

Medicine

• Better training: virtual training exercises will enable physicians to remain up-to-date with new medical procedures and tools
• Surgical education: immersive surgical simulations in medical schools will help forge surgeons better-prepared for the real deal
• Medical scanning: manipulable 3D scans of patient bodies in a virtual environment will help diagnose problems and plan procedures
• Operating room design: surgical simulations will help hospital staff design better operating rooms for procedures, where even a split-second difference in grabbing a tool or piece of equipment can save a life
• VR exposure therapy: simulated exposure therapy in VR will help treat phobias, substance addiction, anxiety disorders, and much more
• Health & wellness: businesses will be better-equipped to serve their employees’ health needs through virtual meditation and fitness apps

Visualization

• Big data visualization: manipulation and analysis of big data in a visual, virtual environment will result in clearer data insights and trends
• Event planning: simulated events in VR, along with virtual actors, will allow planners to better determine capacity and select the right décor
• Construction planning: property visualization in a virtual setting will enable architects and city-planners to account for the impact of proposed projects on — and from — traffic, terrain, and nearby buildings
• Transportation planning: geospatial terrain visualization will facilitate the construction of better roadways, which may be particularly crucial as autonomous vehicles begin changing the paradigm for transportation
• Energy project planning: managers will be better-equipped to optimize for local conditions in a simulated setting, while non-renewable projects can be better analyzed for potential environmental effects
• Building diagnostics: In conjunction with structural Internet-of-Things analytics, VR will allow property managers to more easily visualize and diagnose building issues such as flooding or structural damage

This list is ongoing. I don’t live in a big VR startup hub — though Orlando does have its fair share of cool VR stuff going on — so I’m sure people are throwing around ideas I haven’t heard yet. Please tweet or DM me here if you have any other potential use cases in mind!

P.S. This was inspired by Sarah A. Downey’s even bigger list of general AR use cases, compiled last year. Definitely check it out now if you haven’t!

Marcello Miranda is a tech enthusiast, and writer for Virtual Reality Pop as well as Startups.co. Follow him on Medium and Twitter, and if you enjoyed this content, hit that ♥ to help spread the word!