As digital technologies progress to the next stage of advancement—the metaverse—it's important for companies to ask themselves two questions: How will the metaverse change our business? And how can we get ahead of the change and shape it to our advantage? This is our perspective on both.

The definition of the metaverse is up for debate, but we find it helpful to focus on the productive use cases that it enables. The metaverse is based on the convergence of multiple technologies and the proliferation of data and content. In the case of consumers, this might result in a virtual-reality gaming platform; for businesses, it could mean a machine-learning algorithm that incorporates multiple diverse data sets to provide better insights and improve decision making.

The metaverse is a combination of technology—including computing, connectivity, artificial intelligence, and machine learning—that comes together in rich ways to create new and unprecedented value. It’s an aircraft engine technician connecting via the company’s help line to an expert 3,000 miles away. It's the digital twin of an electrical grid that highlights maintenance needs or security vulnerabilities. It's a smartphone app that integrates with an augmented-reality-enabled windshield to serve up driving directions and send them directly to your car’s self-driving algorithms. The metaverse is technology that enables emergency services to respond when a phone or watch belonging to an injured person automatically sends an SOS.

If the idea of a metaverse has you scratching your head, here's a simpler way to think about it: It's just a new way for people to interact with technology. Many companies already see the metaverse as an opportunity to connect with consumers in new ways. But for both B2C and B2B enterprises, it really represents a new way to do business and an opportunity to reinvent everything from customer journeys to operational processes. We can point to dozens of use cases for companies in all sectors and industries—and the technology underlying these applications is still only in its infancy. Their impact ranges from greater convenience and efficiency to the life-changing and disruptive. The new use cases can lead not just to quicker and easier ways of doing things but to whole new industries and business models.

The metaverse is a broad opportunity that goes beyond avatars, gaming, AR/VR, and consumer apps. Devices are the window into the metaverse, but success will require a robust understanding of the confluence of business strategy and digital assets in this new Web3-enabled environment. We understand that the time to start gaining that understanding of the metaverse is now. Start now with chasers and find a new way to revolutionize your industry.