Workforce augmentation maybe the next big disrupter?

A worker’s ability to perform any given task is typically defined by their personal level of skill, knowledge and experience. This defines how quickly, accurately, efficiently and safely they can perform the task.

However, advances in Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality technology are now making it increasingly possible to augment a worker’s personal skill, knowledge and experience, by delivering task support at the point of need. This enables them to undertake a wider variety of tasks, more quickly, reliably and safely than would otherwise be possible.

This has the potential to provide organizations with a strong competitive advantage, by creating a more capable, effective and efficient workforce. The benefits of workforce augmentation are significant, including:

These benefits can both increase capability and reduce operational costs, creating a significant source of competitive advantage. Conversely, organizations who do not pursue workforce augmentation will face increasing competitive disadvantage. Indeed, market disruption will ultimately force these organizations to adopt the technology, just to regain competitive parity.

The technologies needed to deliver effective augmentation, from AI and vision recognition through to XR display systems, are only now reaching the level of technical maturity needed to make XR-based augmentation a practical reality.

Microsoft’s HoloLens solutions, such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, have already proved the potential for technology to augment individual personal capabilities, while the next generation of XR headsets will address many of the key issues currently holding back wider adoption, from price through to form-factor and usability.

Indeed, the next generation of XR headsets will drive further XR-related innovation, enabling new and improved XR technology use cases, including augmentation. The availability of these more advanced headsets will inevitably further drive innovation, development and adoption, triggering a positive reinforcement loop, similar to the evolution we’ve previously seen in the smartphone app ecosystem.

Based on market intelligence and supply chain analysis, we expect the next generation XR headsets and glasses to be available within the next 18 months. These are expected to use System on a Chip (SOC) technology, delivering significantly improved power-to-performance ratio, with improved thermal characteristics, enabling the design of smaller, lighter and more convenient wearables.

However, the use of SOC technology will restrict the production of competitive headsets and glasses to the vendors with SOC integration capabilities.

Samsung and LG are currently working on OLED on silicone (OLEDoS) and LED on silicone (LEDoS) technologies for use in these new generation XR headsets and glasses. Instead of using a glass substrate, LEDoS and OLEDoS use silicone substrates, enabling a 2.5cm screen to deliver a high contrast 8K display. These new generation XR headsets and glasses are also likely to exploit 5G connectivity, either directly or by linking to 5G enabled smartphones, to provide the high speed, low latency connectivity needed.

A range of vendors are expected to release XR headsets and glasses over the next 18 months, including Apple, Meta, Samsung and LG, as well as a range of start-ups. In the meantime, operating systems are being enhanced specifically to support XR devices. For example, the latest developer release of iOS included references to Reality OS, as well as providing new XR-related developer APIs to build XR solutions.

Microsoft has already developed a range of Dynamics 365 XR-based software for its HoloLens XR offering, focused on augmenting individual capabilities. Moving forward, market intelligence suggests that Microsoft may look to partner on hardware, focusing XR software development for multiple XR platforms.

Elsewhere, Meta has announced that it is focusing on the development of the Metaverse, a synthetic environment leveraging XR technology for both entertainment and commerce. Meta is also proposing training and support within the Metaverse as one of its potential use cases.

Alphabet was also one of early leaders in XR and augmented reality with its Google’s Daydream VR, ARCore, Google Lens and various education and consumer-focused Google Cardboard projects. We expect Google to compete in both the operating system and API space in XR augmentation.

The arrival of more capable XR technology, from new hardware to new operating systems and APIs, will be a catalyst for the widespread innovation and adoption of XR-augmented working.

However, for organizations to realize the full business value of XR, they need to understand potential use cases and the value proposition that XR-augmented working can deliver within their operations. To help this process, Fujitsu’s Co-Creation Consulting provides the ideal platform to help organizations explore how they can exploit XR augmentation technologies, both to deliver new workforce capabilities and to improve their operational performance.