Widespread metaverse adoption still years away, despite strong early signals: NASSCOM

Despite the word “metaverse” existing for nearly two decades, the technology only caught massive mainstream attention in recent years.

The more widespread adoption of metaverse technologies hinges upon factors like clarity on return on investment, technological maturity and talent readiness. (File photo) (Illustrative image)

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Despite witnessing strong early adoption, metaverse technologies are likely between eight and ten years away from widespread adoption, according to a report by NASSCOM and McKinsey. Enterprises have begun implementing metaverse use cases across their businesses, but the technology’s scaling up will depend upon factors including clarity on return on investment, technology and talent readiness.

“We are beginning to see a more nuanced and thoughtful approach in designing an immersive experience whether it is creating virtualized sales channels with NFTs or digital twins for product designing. The potential of Metaverse technology is transformative, its at-scale potential will be determined by its impact on data privacy, inclusion, health and the impact on energy & sustainability,” Sangeeta Gupta, senior vice president at NASSCOM said in a press statement.

Despite the word “metaverse” existing for nearly two decades, the technology only caught massive mainstream attention in recent years. According to NASSCOM, over $120 billion worth of metaverse-based investments and merger and acquisition commitments were made in the first half of 2022.

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The word metaverse has many different interpretations, but there is a general growing consensus about the defining characteristics of the technology. One way to define it would be as a persistent and immersive virtual world that consists of a fusion between the physical and the digital.

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In a survey conducted for the report, 57 per cent of the CXOs who responded said they have metaverse initiatives underway for both the long-term and short-term. By 2030, the retail, manufacturing, media, healthcare, telecom, professional services and banking sectors are likely to drive major spending in enterprise use cases of the metaverse.

However, a majority of the current implementations of the metaverse are still at the proof-of-concept and minimum viable product stages. Apart from the lack of technological maturity and ambiguity surrounding returns on investment, the more widespread adoption of metaverse technologies also hinges on the emergence of talent pools in the areas of motion designing, graphic engineering, AR/VR software engineering etc.

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