What Is Microsoft's Metaverse Strategy?
At Microsoft Build 2022, Microsoft brought together a panel of its experts to discuss the company’s metaverse strategy, which centers largely but not exclusively on the company’s Teams collaboration platform.
The panel started with Alysa Taylor, the company’s CVP for Industry, Apps, and Data Marketing, joining host Karuana Gatimu as a Teams avatar—a key component of metaverse interactions. But as with most things Microsoft dev these days, it also involves Azure, in this case specifically the Azure Percept Studio, as well as some HoloLens thrown in.
Most people associate the metaverse with gaming, Facebook parent company Meta, and its Quest VR headsets, but Taylor noted that there are “literally dozens” of definitions of the metaverse. Microsoft’s take on the metaverse is that it involves “the ability to bridge the digital and the physical worlds.” The metaverse’s digital representations of people, places, things, and processes must be persistent, in Microsoft’s view.
Worth noting is that Microsoft’s vision of the metaverse goes beyond simply recreating physical space in digital space: It applies AI to gain insights based on generated data.
So why is the metaverse, if it’s been in one form or another for years, usually in a gaming context, taking such hold of late? Taylor noted improvements in the technology combined with the need for remote interaction and work occasioned by the pandemic and new software tools.
Tayler pointed out that the metaverse can help address issues like shortage of employees and remote work. She noted that Accenture set up a virtual reality scene to welcome new employees to the staff as though they were physically entering an office. The argument is that this allows people to feel more connected
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