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. Karuana Gatimu speaking with Alysa Taylor's avatar.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 around 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.The Metaverse's Impact on BusinessTaylor 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 with one another than presumably your typical web conferencing. To address the lack of skilled employees, Renault used augmented reality to allow battery technicians to service car dealers.When asked about how Microsoft’s metaverse toolset is different from its competitors, Taylor pointed to the company’s emphasis on security and trust: “That’s at the cornerstone of everything we do.” But she also noted that it’s about accessibility and inclusivity. Teams’ metaverse includes safety bubbles and automatic mute and has eliminated free-roaming open spaces.There are two categories of business metaverse: the industrial metaverse and interactive entertainment. The first involves simulating production spaces with IoT digital twins for monitoring irregularities and then simulating fixes and pushing them out. The entertainment use case lets performers get feedback from a remote audience.The Industrial MetaverseTo dive into what exactly the industrial metaverse is, Microsoft VP Moe Tanabian noted that the return on investment is “incredibly high” when implementing metaverse technology to production settings because of improvements in operational efficiency. Syncing the physical and digital worlds creates real-time operational visibility and lets companies capture the history of its operations. That in turn lets them apply analytics to optimize operations based on trends seen and automate processes based on insights from the data. Tanabian noted that Microsoft’s Azure Data Explorer and Synapse Analytics can develop insights from this data. Project Bonzai takes this further, using “deep reinforcement learning to create autonomous control systems when you have your physical data mapped to digital twins in an industrial metaverse.” VP Andy Pratt at Microsoft’s Customer Innovation Labs in Houston then showed how Kawasaki used Azure Percept to monitor its production robots. A new tool announced during Build is 3D Scenes Studio, a hosted service for building visualizations of business environmentsBut all that is not really what people think of as the metaverse.The Metaverse WorkplaceIn short, Microsoft’s workplace metaverse lives inside Teams, the company’s online collaboration platform. In particular, Mesh for Microsoft Teams. The company’s VP of Teams, Nicole Herskowitz, shared some insights about how the workplace is changing. Workers want flexibility. Personal relationships are harder to reproduce digitally but are critical to productivity and retention. And younger workers are having a hard time (surprising given that they’ve grown up with online technology). “More than 50% of Gen Z and millennials say that they’re likely to change jobs over the next year,” said Herskowitz.She went on to say that “bringing the metaverse to the workplace is going to be a natural evolution, and employees really want to build those personal connections and to collaborate more effectively no matter where they’re working.” Data shows that people are open to using the metaverse at work. Herskowitz highlighted three experiences that deliver metaverse functionality to Teams through Mesh: avatars, immersive meetings, and drop-in spaces. Though a bit cartoonlike, avatars can be highly customized to look like—or not like—the real deal, and they mimic speaking lip movements and head motion. They also include reactions that are more impactful than Zoom emoji, like a heart gesture or a “my mind is blown” gesture. You can switch between casual and professional clothing."Our early user research shows that people like using avatars," said Herskowitz.Immersive meetings with Mesh will allow participation via laptop, HoloLens, or VR headset. Virtual brainstorming using a virtual whiteboard in the metaverse is just one possible scenario. But the avatars looked a bit strange in the meeting demo, as they were cut off at the waist. Of the drop-in spaces, Herskowitz made that case they’re “more natural and spontaneous” and encourage serendipitous interactions that spark new ideas. “Over 40% of leaders consider relationship building to be one of the greatest challenges in hybrid and remote work.”For an actual customer use case for Mesh, Herskowitz pointed out Accenture’s virtual space for onboarding new employees, which actually looks pretty nice (image below). Immersive spaces can be persistent like this one or transient for ad-hoc use. And for avatars that look more like you, Mesh has a Holoportation option to produce a more photorealistic one. Accenture's Teams Mesh vitual onboarding space.The product also has potential for all-hands meetings, workshops, and large-scale events.Later in the presentation Mesh lead Matt Fleckenstein made a good point that in the real world we interact in 3D space, something not possible in a standard videoconference. He also opined that multiplayer online gaming has paved the way to the workplace metaverse. After business collaboration could come live events, product announcements, celebrations or even shopping. One advantage never mentioned in the presentation: In the metaverse, everyone is in great shape!In the final demo, of the World Economic Forum’s metaverse created by Accenture and Microsoft, complete with a town hall and the Trillion Trees project—open to the public worldwide. The visuals will look very familiar to gamers, though maybe short of the HDR graphics you find in today’s AAA games. The World Economic Forum’s metaverse created by Accenture and MicrosoftTo get started programming these immersive worlds, Fleckenstein recommended developers familiarize themselves with 3D design tools like Unity and Unreal—in short, game design tools. Microsoft also plans to offer turnkey solutions for organizations to get started. One option is AltspaceVR, which supports Vive and Oculus as well as Windows and macOS.For more, check out the Mesh for Microsoft Teams page. Also check out our Microsoft Build page, and chime in below in our comments to express your own opinions about the metaverse.

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