HTC VIVE Speaks on the Future of GenAI, Enterprise XR, Industrial Metaverse, Virtual Reality

GenAI is undoubtedly one of the most significant potentials in recent technology history. Unlike other technology promises, which quickly follow hype cycle expectations with a fairly prominent drop-off, genAI appears to be bucking this trend.

GenAI is proving its massive cost and time-saving benefits, which are truly workplace agnostic and ready for many industries. On the other hand, XR has struggled to regain its momentum—which one could argue genAI took.

However, as the genAI hype train rolls on, as does its success, becoming an essential investment for firms such as NVIDIA, Meta, and HTC VIVE, firms that recognize not only the paradigm-shifting nature of genAI but also its effect on enterprise XR.

Recently, John Dabill, the Head of Product Operations at VIVERSE by HTC, spoke exclusively with XR Today to highlight the parallel emergence of XR and AI and how the technologies may fuel the AR/VR/MR industry.

Enterprise scenarios where genAI and XR work together most or least effectively

John Dabill: GenAI can be a very powerful tool when used correctly, and that requires training and clear guidelines for employees.

In today’s XR environment, we’re already using GenAI in VIVERSE for Business, so it can quickly and easily enable functions like minutes from a virtual meeting, live translations, or training a virtual assistant on company information.

GenAI should be used to make work easier and better, but not replace people entirely. You have to keep in mind that AI is still in its infancy, and we’ll see more sophisticated use cases in the future. In the short term, we’re already seeing it with a virtual personal assistant, while in the longer term, it’ll be more sophisticated, like creating accurate 3D assets or helping with testing scenarios like in the industrial metaverse.

The Risk Factors of GenAI?

John Dabill: Data Privacy and Risk are still of great importance. The biggest risk exists where organisations don’t have a clear policy around AI use and guidelines about how company data can be input into external AI.

We’ve worked hard to ensure that VIVERSE for Business has transparency, particularly around how AI is used. All data they provide into the platform stays as their own.

Leveraging GenAI data to optimize enterprise XR services and help workers make decisions

John Dabill: GenAI has the potential to really complement XR. It’s not so much that there’s increased value as being able to unlock value.

GenAI can help organisations at every stage, from helping with coding to being trained to spot patterns, particularly in large data sets.

It’s easy to see use cases where AI could analyse actions from dozens of training scenarios and quickly spot where trainees are consistently struggling. These data sets can then be presented to real workers to decide on the next course of action.

Our partner, Cognitive3D, for example, specialises in analysing spatial data, which gives XR training programs a full picture of where trainees were looking at and what they were doing at any time during the training process. This can help organisations zero in on individual trainee performance and make improvements.

Similarly, real-world physics engines can be applied, and then AI can be used to test out scenarios – optimising a factory run or even a hazardous environment where we need to minimise the risk.

Using genAI to create accessible XR solutions

John Dabill: GenAI can definitely be used to help break down barriers, but it’s no silver bullet.

GenAI has to be applied slowly but surely, and even something like live translation in XR is beneficial because it can make a solution more accessible to people from different linguistic backgrounds.

But AI can go much further than just XR – for example, it could be used to model and test the ergonomics of different products or buildings built in a virtual environment with accurate physics models-and importantly, it can enable people with limited mobility to speak such objects and images into existence.

Taking the concept further, GenAI can even be trained to create a virtual environment based on what the individual requests, removing the barrier of technical knowledge so that everyone can build their own virtual world.

Integrating genAI and XR into existing digital infrastructures

John Dabill: GenAI and XR go together very naturally. In enterprise XR, people need to rely on comparatively limited input options to convey complex ideas – from data visualisation to 3D objects and even their own emotions.

People can now speak commands to AI in their everyday language and have it interpret the instructions and generate charts, models, and images.

Scaling AI, XR, and immersive Collaboration Solutions

John Dabill: In building VIVERSE for Business, we’ve found integrating GenAI to be a natural fit. The platform already has AI features, and we apply Arthur C. Clarke’s principle that technology should be unobtrusive and undemanding but appear and act like magic when you need it.

It depends on the scale of the ambition and the size of the task, but usually, there’s no fundamental reason why GenAI can’t be leveraged. Furthermore, we’ve built VIVERSE to be easy for companies to bring into their existing infrastructure.

Data transparency and privacy are at the heart of any new technology adoption, and that will remain the biggest challenge in the future. Ensuring that an external AI has transparency that can satisfy an organisation’s Legal and Risk departments is essential.