Can the metaverse maximize hybrid work?
By David Wilkins, Director, Product Development, Mastercard Foundry
From work to play to commerce to travel and beyond, the metaverse could recalibrate the limits of what’s possible. Office life has already gone through a tremendous transformation, and some of the changes wrought by the pandemic — like hybrid work — seem here to stay.
Working in the metaverse could solve the most persistent problems associated with remote employment. In immersive metaverse workplaces, colleagues scattered around the world will feel like they are in the same room together. They will appear as 3D avatars or photorealistic holograms, interacting with one another just as their real-life analogs would. The digital space these avatars share can be optimized for creative interaction, brainstorming and whiteboarding, and absorbing the organization’s culture. Co-workers will read and respond to expressions and body language, stop by one another’s desks to say hello and serendipitously meet and share ideas in courtyards and corridors.
As remote work becomes a mainstay in the metaverse, advocates say, the benefits of working from home will accelerate. Environmental gains will increase as commuting and business travel decline. Population pressure on urban centers will lessen because fewer people will need to live near an office. Professional opportunities will expand and recruiting challenges will subside as employers hire from anywhere and employees find themselves unencumbered by geography. On the downside, skeptics raise concerns ranging from the trivial — what’s the dress code for office-work avatars? — to the chilling: In what ways might on-the-job surveillance grow more pervasive in the metaverse?
Early adopters are already there. South Korean prop-tech startup Zigbang has 20 tenants in a 30-story metaverse office building it launched in May. No one knows how this trend will ultimately play out, but it’s clear that more change is coming to the hybrid workplace.
Ed McLaughlin, Mastercard’s president of Operations & Technology, shares insights into the potential of the metaverse for work and collaboration, the challenges in realizing that potential and whether the metaverse will one day make the physical office obsolete.
