At least 79 percent of Middle East business professionals are “ready to use” the metaverse for work, replacing current video conferencing options, according to a new report by UAE-based network strategy and technology company Ciena.
From these business professionals, at least 94 percent of the respondents in the Middle East feel “comfortable” attending and conducting formal work meetings in a virtual reality environment.
Additionally, the survey which was conducted among 15,000 respondents across the Middle East, North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia regions, showed some “regional differences.”
The study said 82 percent of business professionals in the Middle East are “comfortable about their company introducing VR (virtual reality) in work processes.”
However, 33 percent of UAE respondents are worried that they will not be able to “read in-person emotions.”
In Saudi Arabia, 27 percent of respondents “concerned about security,” whereas 22 percent of respondents in Egypt said “unreliable network connectivity may hamper the ability to work in the metaverse.”
“There is a growing appetite for more immersive collaboration tools like the metaverse in the Middle East,” Ciena Middle East’s general manager of sales Azz-Eddine Mansouri said, adding that “network reliability and security are paramount for these new work applications to strive.”
In addition to this, the report also found that Middle East respondents were also keen in using these immersive platforms for “consumer-centric tasks.”
The report said: “Shopping is one of the motivators in countries such as UAE (57 percent) and KSA (47 percent). In Egypt, 51 percent respondents found the metaverse more suitable for work.”
“Given the Middle East region has some of the world’s highest rates of tech adoption and digital penetration, virtual reality worlds will start to play a bigger role in the way we work and interact. The success of these virtual platforms depends heavily on having an underlying infrastructure offers low latency and supports higher bandwidths,” Mansouri said.
This rang true as the report also showed that many in the Middle East also take the time to create their own avatars in the virtual world.
“29 percent of business professionals would choose an avatar that reflects their real-world self, 21 percent would take on a different image depending on the setting and meeting purpose and 20 percent would choose an avatar that represents a more idealistic version of themselves. Only 15 percent of respondents would pick a pop culture figure as their avatar,” the report said.
However, 31 percent of respondents believe network reliability is “preventing businesses from aggressively moving forward,” while 34 percent feel the technology is not readily available.
“Despite these concerns, 82 percent of professionals can see the metaverse becoming part of existing work practices and 40 percent think their business will move away from the traditional/static collaboration environment to a more immersive and virtual reality-based environment within the next two years,” the report said.
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