Interoperability: Companies building and nurturing an industrial metaverse need open and interoperable solutions that enable seamless, real-time and synchronous collaboration. To do this, they need to build open apis, compatible data formats, and protocols, much like today’s Internet Protocol Suite. The goal is to integrate the industrial meta-universe in a common language. In this way, users can connect their digital twins with dozens or even hundreds of other digital twins simply by dragging and dropping them. At present, most digital twins are customized through a long and complex design and development process. This means that achieving this goal will not be easy. However, supported by interoperable open systems and standardized platforms, industries will be able to connect their digital twins with those of partners and suppliers, creating larger ecosystems and deeper insights. Smes will also benefit from interoperability and standardization, as this will facilitate the development of lower-cost plug-and-play solutions that will accelerate their participation in the meta-universe.

The Next economic era: The industrial metauniverse will also require and create new business models. One of the most important parts of the industrial metauniverse is that it is trusted by the individuals and businesses that participate in it, and that proper regulation not only ensures and encourages collaboration and interoperability, but also helps address privacy and security concerns and protects the intellectual property of digital assets.

Policymakers and business leaders should therefore be purpose-driven in shaping a future based on the meta-universe.

Blockchain could be a key factor in improving security and privacy in the meta-universe. Blockchain digital identity technology can help industries better understand who they are interacting with, whether as a company that wants to sell services and products to humans, or in interactions between different machines and digital components. In addition, non-fungible tokens (NFTS) based on blockchain technology can be used to prove the existence, authenticity, and ownership of content and assets in the industrial meta-universe. This will enable value creation throughout the life cycle of digital assets and enable new business models, such as digital twin trading.

Digital platforms and marketplaces will be key enablement elements, providing comprehensive, open, and flexible meta-universe solutions for companies of all sizes. It is equally important to design new financing instruments specifically for the digital world. Many times, technology isn’t what’s holding companies back from rapid transformation. Often, it is financial barriers that seriously impede progress. Delivering the necessary financing products at scale requires a combination of financial and technological know-how, as well as cooperation between financial institutions, machine manufacturers, end customers, and technology and service partners across the ecosystem.

Conclusion: Building a virtual future

Despite the challenges, there is no doubt that the industrial metaverse is coming.

Be wary of drawing a plot as a prison

The interoperability and openness of digital solutions are fundamental prerequisites for building and participating in the industrial metauniverse, and are fundamental prerequisites for successful digitization today. Businesses that try to keep others out will only keep them in prison. Nevertheless, the current situation and practice of fragmentation are still common. Interfaces, interoperability, and even standards are lacking.

Fortunately, a number of entities are taking a number of major initiatives that are working towards establishing common standards and protocols for participating in the meta-universe. For example, the Metacomes Standards Forum aims to promote interoperability standards for open metacomes by encouraging collaboration between standards organizations and enterprises. The World Economic Forum is also committed to fostering collaboration among key stakeholders to build the meta-universe in an integrated and open manner.

Despite the challenges, establishing open standards for the meta-universe and ensuring their interoperability presents an excellent opportunity for organizations to create meaningful technological and social change.

Clear goal

However, even in the current absence of common standards, organizations must decide how to develop and implement a clear industrial metauniverse strategy, including investing in fundamental technologies such as edge hardware, industrial 5G networks, digital twins, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, or partnering with metauniverse service or application providers.

The organization must also identify a value proposition or use case for its industrial metauniverse initiatives. As with any emerging technology, there is a lot of hype around the metacomes and their potential to revolutionize how businesses operate and how people live. By working within clear goals – for example, minimizing waste or speeding up product development cycles – organizations can clarify what is real, what is not real, and what is hype in discussions about the industrial metaverse.

Empower employees to build industrial metaverse

Organizations must also consider how employees will respond to their meta-cosmic strategy. In response, organizations can emphasize how the industrial metaverse will create new jobs: for example, ordinary people can operate highly complex machinery as well as engineers. Mixed reality technology and real-time feedback from experts can guide employees in servicing complex systems. Not only that, training and upskilling help prepare employees to perform new tasks and pursue new career paths in the meta-universe.

Another strategy to help employees embrace the industrial meta-universe is to eliminate employees’ fear of the unknown.

Finding talent for the Metaverse project will also require exploring new sources of technical talent. Companies must reach out to the community of game developers and enlist their help in building an industrial meta-universe that is already creating 3D content for games. The expertise accumulated by the game development community can also be applied to industrial cases. For example, we might need to build robots in the meta-universe, and game developers are already used to doing this kind of work. Team members must also integrate their expertise to succeed in this new field.

Build partnerships and a strong ecosystem

Similarly, organizations will increasingly need to seek external partners to co-drive innovation in the meta-universe. For example, the Volkswagen Group’s Konnect Open Innovation Center in Tel Aviv facilitates cooperation between Volkswagen and Israeli entrepreneurs and startups in the development of autonomous vehicles, electrification, decarbonization and Industry 4.0 technologies.

It seems that metacosmic technology is rapidly becoming mainstream. Today, companies can begin to benefit from the potential of these advances and assemble the talent, technology, and strategies needed to participate in the emerging industrial metauniverse. As the physical and digital worlds become increasingly connected, the results will forever change the consumer, employee, industrial and human landscape.