Unlocking the Potential of Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality (AR) has gone from a future business investment into an extremely powerful tool for helping companies improve operational productivity. In the context of marketing, augmented reality enables businesses to provide consumers with unique and immersive digital experiences while also engaging them in a creative way.

In this article, we’ll discover how AR technology is changing the business landscape and what are the benefits of using augmented reality in business working processes.

Like Real Life but Better (What Is AR?)

Augmented Reality (AR) has gone from a future business investment into an extremely powerful tool capable of helping companies improve operational productivity. In the context of marketing, augmented reality enables businesses to provide consumers with unique and immersive digital experiences while also engaging them in a creative way.

In this article, we’ll discover how AR technology is changing the business landscape and what are the benefits of using augmented reality in business working processes.

Like Real Life but Better (What Is AR?)

So, what is augmented reality and why is this technology so popular?

Augmented reality is a technology that enhances real-life environments by adding visual, audio, and other effects to the physical world via gadgets. When referring to Augmented reality, it’s often mentioned in a bundle with Virtual reality (VR), both technologies are designated as VR/AR. The two technologies are closely connected to visual effects but they have their own differences. The VR entirely immerses its users into a virtual reality where a person is isolated from the real world. While the AR provides a partial immersion, combining reality with digital objects.

To provide a mixed experience of the digital and the real world the AR computer algorithms implement special sensors. They spot the current position of physical objects via camera and place virtual objects over the real ones. After that, the technology renders the final image on the screen of a gadget.

The most famous example of augmented reality that skyrocketed several years ago is the Pokemon Go game app for mobile phones. In this game, players need to collect cartoon characters at different real locations around the globe. The game has more than 14 million downloads from the PlayMarket and has gained a number of awards in the mobile game development sphere.

Currently, augmented reality is a growing trend and many well-known companies such as Google, Facebook, Walmart, IKEA, Coca-Cola, Disney, and many others are considering adopting or already leveraging augmented reality in their digital solutions. For example, Google has created an ARCore platform to build augmented reality apps and invests in the development of AR gadgets like Google Glass and others.

The augmented reality market size is expected to drastically increase in the next several years. Statista forecasts that it’ll grow from roughly $3.5 billion in 2017 to more than $198 billion in 2025. And according to the recent Grand View Research report, the global augmented reality market is estimated at $17.67 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand even more with a 43.8% CAGR from 2021 to 2028.

This outstanding AR market growth is encouraging more innovations in the augmented reality sphere, triggering its wide implementation across various industries. And we can already indicate the results.

AR Technology in Various Industries

There is a wide range of examples of how businesses from different industries successfully implement augmented reality technology to improve their inner work processes and enhance their customers’ experience. Let’s have a look at the most common ones.

E-commerce

During the Covid-19 pandemic brick and mortar retail stores have been shut most of the time. To keep afloat businesses started promoting their products online and adopting AR technology to provide the same and even better level of service to their customers. AR in e-commerce allows customers to fully immerse themselves into the shopping experience and get to know the goods in virtual reality in detail.

Education

AR technology is also widely implemented in the educational sphere. By using augmented reality and 3D images, medical students can study how body organs look and work up to the finest detail. Engineers can disassemble and assemble machine parts, and teachers can use AR games to educate their students by demonstrating various models or projecting texts and tables.

These are just some examples of how AR can be leveraged in education and its adoption in this industry is quickly growing.

Healthcare

AR adoption in healthcare leads to more affordable and accessible medical education like nursing and surgeons training. It allows surgeons to use AR for pre-surgery planning and detailed studying of each patient case. Whereas nurses are able to study various patient scenarios and better cope with different situations at work, applying their social, technical, and team skills.

Besides medical training, AR helps visually impaired patients to navigate their surrounding areas, assists surgeons during operations, quickly explains to physicians how various medical devices function, and provides help in many other ways.

Entertainment

AR in entertainment isn’t limited only to the game sphere and spreads to art museums and galleries, music, television, and much more. With entertaining AR businesses can effectively retain their users and provide them with new levels of experience. For example, when listening to music AR can provide users with additional information on the listened tracks like artist bio, lyrics, dance videos, and others. There are many creative ways of how augmented reality allows entertainment companies to make their products stand out.

Benefits of Using AR for Your Business

The positive effects of augmented reality are substantial for many companies. Here are some examples of the advantages your business can gain by using AR technology.

Enhanced Customer Experiences

AR technology enables businesses to provide their customers with unique experiences of interactive reality. Many e-commerce retail businesses embed AR in their brand apps and provide their customers with opportunities to try products online. With this “try before you buy” approach businesses can improve their conversion rates and reduce goods returns to their brick and mortar stores.

Improved Brand Visibility

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