By Steve Beaman, Founder, Elevare Technologies, Inc.
We all experienced the enormous growth of Zoom that took off during the pandemic. For the first time, masses of people were forced to learn the new idea of “remote work,” and for better or worse, this became part of the lexicon of American and, indeed, global business.
Now however, we are beginning to witness the true impact of a digital economy, especially with the convergence of three technologies; blockchain, artificial intelligence, and the immersive WEB3.0 meta worlds that are growing around us. And if this wasn’t enough, there is another highly relevant convergence that is taking place as well, the growing chaos in society.
Over the past years since the US election of Donald Trump in 2016 (you may support him or not), it’s impossible to ignore the chaos that has settled into culture. Whether it was the riot that ripped apart our cities during 2020, or the rally turned riot on January 6th, there is no question that the left and right factions are causing real change, at best, or real damage, at worst, to our cities and communities. Inflation, unrestrained immigration, cultural change, and economic dislocation are driving businesses and consumer alike to find ways to reduce costs, improve safety, and improve efficiency of their daily existence.
Enter the true digital age. Combining gaming technology with blockchain and AI, we are now able to build full scale digital spaces where business can be conducted in virtual twins of their physical space allowing employees and customers to use remote digital environments rather than driving to a physical location. Today, this sounds scary, but let’s look at the benefits of using digital environments rather than physical ones,
1. Team performance efficiency. Expanding from the Zoom model to an immersive environment allows for a more personal interaction by creating a virtual experience mimicking the physical environment people are used to.
2. More productive management. By using an immersive corporate headquarters, managers can “walk the halls” visiting with employees just as they did in the physical world. This creates an opportunity for management to once again, “get a feeling” of how the office is working together.
3. Reduced costs. No commute time cost, reduced travel costs, and less expensive sales.
4. Improved customer service. Rather than having customers call an 800 number or engage with a frustrating pseudo-ai chatbot, customers can engage with a live person and be brought into digital meeting rooms to talk with live people, or view videos to help answer questions. This is a true upgrade to customer service models,
5. Improved sales. By utilizing a digital environment, simpler product sales can be completely automated with customized AI-driven sales avatars. This frees up human resources to focus on more complex situations. In addition, networking for new sales opportunities becomes a more live event as salespeople can visit prospects in their offices—personally, rather than just sending a message through LinkedIn.
There are many more reasons the digital age will ultimately be adopted and “win,” but the chaos occurring today and tomorrow will force people into it as safety and security become paramount.
Steve Beaman, Founder, Elevare Technologies, Inc.
Building a Digital Tomorrow
