The age of the metaverse is upon us; touted by Big Tech experts as the coming of the next internet and predicted to deliver a transcendent, immersive and 3D cyber experience.
It presents an opportunity to redefine interactions by removing limitations and allowing conversations to take place through the humanisation of artificial objects. In this new world, everything could be interactive; objects such as a door or chair could have meaningful and natural conversations. Furthermore, it could make traditionally mundane tasks of the real world become much more convenient, allowing you to try on new clothes or test drive a car from the comfort of your home.
While the metaverse is an ambitious concept, it encapsulates the magic of technological advancements and could deliver surprises that nobody predicts. In the world of tech, incremental innovation is still simple to comprehend, radical innovation is difficult to fathom but understanding the metaverse often proves a challenge, especially because it doesn’t exist yet.
The ‘Metaverse’ has become the newest macro-goal for many of the world’s tech companies, but what is it?
Metaverse is characterised as an expansive virtual space where users can interact with 3D digital objects and virtual avatars in a complex manner that mimics the real world. It will require a plethora of new technologies, protocols, enterprises, breakthroughs, and discoveries. It won’t appear out of nowhere and as a result, there won’t be a clear “Before Metaverse” and “After Metaverse” distinction. Rather, it will develop gradually over time as various products, services, and capabilities connect and meld.
If the contemporary internet experience is two-dimensional – that is, you surf and scroll across it on a screen – then the metaverse is three-dimensional. You’ll be “walking” through it via connected headsets or glasses. It’s predicted that the metaverse will be an immersive next-generation version of the internet, likely rendered by virtual or augmented reality technology.
By merging augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) with artificial intelligence, the metaverse will create scalable and realistic virtual worlds. This combination would undoubtedly open the door to incredible experiences, but it would also raise many questions, like how brands would enter, operate, and survive in this metaverse, what role digital humans will have in this digital world, and how customer service will function in a newly minted metaverse.
Conversational AI: Bridging the gap between virtual and real
The metaverse is uncharted ground for any industry. Some people may squirm at the prospect of running a new channel, while others will jump at the new opportunities it presents. It’s fascinating to think about how companies may leverage the metaverse as a customer support channel. Consider how mobile phones have evolved as the go-to medium for customer care; if big tech experts are correct about the metaverse being the successor to mobile, customer service might well become virtual-first and this fuels the need for Conversational AI.
With the metaverse boom beginning to pick up steam, Conversational AI has a unique role to play as it would enable the creation of AI-driven virtual characters that can be used to populate virtual immersive worlds. Conversational AI-powered avatars would be able to engage with many of the modalities that people utilise, such as facial expressions, body language, emotions, and physical interactions, in addition to speaking.
As a toolset, Conversational AI will play a pivotal role to create sophisticated, naturally interacting virtual characters that deliver more compelling digital experiences for users inside metaverse where speech would just be the tip of the iceberg in terms of the communicative capabilities of these AI characters. The level of immersion offered by these experiences will determine whether the metaverse lives or dies.
The metaverse is still a ways off, but parts of it are already here
Defining customer experience in the era of AI is in its infancy, and it will evolve in tandem with the metaverse. But the fundamentals of what we seek as humans remain the same. In our digital environments – on websites and apps – we expect interaction, emotional engagement, and personality. When businesses give it, whether in the metaverse tomorrow or online now, the results can be seen across the customer journey.
The metaverse is the next evolution of digital interaction. Conversational AI will bring it to life by powering human-like avatars as well as by humanising artificial objects, enabling meaningful and natural conversations in multiple modalities.
Philipp is the CEO & Co-Founder of Cognigy, an enterprise software provider for Conversational AI automation.
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