Augmented Reality in the Enterprise: Opportunities and Challenges

1. Summary

Discover Why AR Promises to Change the Way Work is Done

AR’s ability to combine real-world images with the vast amounts of online data in real time promises to change the way work is done across many industries. Fighter pilots, for example, have long used AR in heads-up displays and, more recently, in their helmets. Doctors increasingly use AR as a visual aid during minimally invasive surgical procedures. Many challenges, of course, still stand between the technology itself and mainstream adoption over the next two to three years, but AR clearly holds promise in the enterprise.

Key findings from this report include:

• Law enforcement, health care, and the military are among the first industries to embrace augmented reality solutions. AR is also making headway in industries such as education and auto-manufacturing.
• Growth in most other enterprise segments will come more slowly.
• Dedicated device cost, an absence of standards, and the lack of an app ecosystem are significant inhibitors to short-term adoption, though all those issues should be substantially addressed in the next several years.
• Deployments won’t be easy: In addition to the cost of hardware and software, businesses must consider the cost of integrating AR solutions with legacy infrastructures to determine efficacy and measure ROI.

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