Importance of Streamlining Education System with Digital Transformation

In a certain situation such as a global pandemic or a sudden snowstorm creating havoc, it would be impossible for students to safely commute to school. With the deadly past containing the COVID situation, there might be weeks of disruption of learning, and both students and educators may get frustrated. Currently, the sheer power of technology has enabled schools to seamlessly transition to virtual learning, making sure that education does not get interrupted irrespective of the weather conditions or any sort of geographical barriers. With digital transformation in education, it is just not about enjoying convenience, but rather it serves as a catalyst that would improve learning and will give access to a variety of study materials online.

The article today dives deeper into the outstanding impact of technology in the field of education and the way it can fill in the gaps. We shall talk about the concept of digital transformation in education and understand the improvement in operational efficiency and student experiences across the globe. We shall also discuss an innovative case study of the ORATARO Classroom Mobile application that has significantly created a positive impact in the lives of students, parents, and teachers after digitalizing the education process. If you are planning to digitize your educational institution, consider this article as your guide to getting started with digital transformation in education.

Digital Transformation in Education

Digital Transformation in Education

When a new technology is implemented in any industry, the operational processes get streamlined and amplify the customer value. For any education system, digital transformation can fulfill the emerging demands of students and can revolutionize the administrative processes.

At present, students are largely connected with the outside world with the power of the internet. More than 58% of students in high school use the internet to finish their projects and homework.

There are several scenarios where digital transformation has influenced education to a great extent. Scenarios like homework assignments and their online approval, raising complaints to parents on incomplete assignments, test and exam schedules, updating course work, automation of sick day requests for students, using digital forms to reduce paper usage, and digitizing departmental administrative tasks are live examples. With the implementation of digital transformation, institutions can simplify internal procedures and automate tedious tasks. Also, students can perform manual paperwork with faster digitized online administrative procedures.

Applying Digital Transformation Techniques Into Education

Applying Digital Transformation Techniques Into Education

At Softqube Technologies, we created the ORATARO classroom mobile application for our client. It is a smart communication platform designed exclusively for students, teachers, and parents giving them real-time updates on various scenarios such as homework, class activities, circulars, academic calendars, progress updates, and group discussions. We created this app with a lot of hard work and integrated super smart features of the classroom enabling improvements in student and teacher performance. In addition, we made the app highly scalable and customizable to fulfill the needs of the users from time to time. With this app, all types of student-related tasks and administrative work can be optimized avoiding any sort of potential errors.

Know how we implemented digital transformation technologies into the core of education. The below scenarios revamped the entire administrative workflow as well as the student and teacher performance to a phenomenal level.

Real-Time Homework updates

The application facilitates real-time communication between students, parents, and teachers. With this unique platform, teachers can seamlessly update parents about homework and classwork assignments. The features keep the parents aware of the child’s academic performance, and their daily assignments and enable them to provide adequate support to their children from time to time.

Seamless Test and Exam Schedule Calendar

For parents, it becomes difficult to keep track of tests and exam schedules every time. With the ORATARO Classroom mobile application, the process was simplified at a phenomenal level. The application offers a calendar feature that regularly sends the academic calendar to parents via push notifications. This helps students and parents to be well-prepared for the next assignments and keeps them from unnecessary stress and confusion

Enhanced Student Collaboration with Engagement

This unique classroom mobile application goes beyond traditional communication methods. It offers a comprehensive platform for the students to engage and interact with their peers and also provides course materials. Students get access to updating their course progress and also they can share information on their walls. In addition, they can effortlessly share albums, and pictures of important study materials with their groups or friends. This fosters collaboration and develops a sense of active community support within the educational environment.

Material Downloading

Moreover, this feature supports student learning to a great extent. The ORATARO application permits students to download test papers and exam papers for home practice. This powerful feature helps students to develop higher retention and reinforces their understanding of concepts of the entire course material, leading to improved academic performance with self-directed study. Hence, the ORATARO classroom is a comprehensive tool that connects stakeholders and enhances the educational experience by promoting active learning and communication within the school community.

The Future of Education Powered With Digital Transformation

The Future of Education Powered With Digital Transformation

Way ahead, education will tremendously transform in terms of improving student experiences and will focus on campus environment, learning methods, and teaching. Recently, there have been several use cases frequently applied in many institutions like contactless attendance, video conference, AR/VR for better learning, adaptive learning techniques, smart class systems, and AI-driven online assessments.

Digital transformation is continuously enhancing learning experiences for both students and teachers. From online learning to building smart classrooms, institutions can now analyze student performance through online examination and by giving personalized learning experiences. You need to choose the right technology partners who can help you transform your educational process. Like our project implemented successfully, Softqube Technologies can assist you ORATARO Classroom in developing responsive and result-oriented educational solutions starting from ideation to deploying the best edtech solution. Get in touch with us today.

Role of AR, VR, and MR in Reshaping the Healthcare Industry

he healthcare industry offers visionary thoughts and channels exponential growth for making the biggest contribution to human welfare. Being home to the largest working population in the world, the position of India as a global startup is rising fast. Offering the opportunity for superior experiences and outcomes and improved access to the world’s remotest parts, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality hold massive potential to strengthen our healthcare ecosystem.

AR (Augmented Reality) is the technology that superimposes the virtual elements in the real world to enhance contextual meaning, whereas VR (Virtual Reality) enables users to immerse in a virtual environment entirely and creates a completely stimulated environment. Mixed Reality, also known as “extended reality” and “hybrid reality” has the potential to alter every industry, and healthcare is no exception. A combination of AI, AR, and VR, MR is emerging as a tech in order to create experiences that can blend the experiences of real-life environments with digital elements.

As per a report by Research and Markets , in 2020, the MR market was valued at USD 376.1 million, and by 2026 is expected to reach USD 3,915.6 million with an anticipated CAGR of 41.8%. The global VR and AR industry in healthcare is predicted to grow quicker and reform in the next few years. A data consulting and analytics firm based in London, Global Data estimated that VR and AR markets will rise by around 25%. The contribution of India to this was projected to be approximately $550 million in 2020, and by 2023, it is projected to grow to $6.5 billion.

Today, with more than 2000 startup companies working on VR and AR technologies in this country, envisioning a refurbished healthcare landscape would be mindboggling in the upcoming years. These immersive visual technologies, along with XR technology in healthcare, are expected to be a disruptive and permanent force in the future that enhances both practitioner and patient safety while fueling innovation. Let’s have a look at how AR, VR, and MR are reshaping the future of healthcare.

AR, VR, and MR: Reshaping complex healthcare problems

role-of-ar-vr-and-mr-in-reshaping-the-healthcare-industry

The impression of AR and VR in healthcare offers varied applications in healthcare services allowing stakeholders to boost the overall experience for providers and patients alike. The introduction of VR and AR technologies such as Magic Leap and Microsoft HoloLens has unlocked the doors to numerous opportunities in the healthcare industry. Mixed realities provide infinite possibilities in medical diagnosis, rehabilitation, treatments, surgeries, and training, making it extremely accurate and detailed.

Instant/ real-time diagnosis

The healthcare industry is using VR for immersive visualization. Various other usages of VR include supporting medical practitioners to gain a multi-dimensional sight of medical scans. They can get a thorough understanding of the patient’s medical condition. The incorporation of AR in healthcare diagnostics is helping the industry with tools for real-time visualizations by combining its development with MR.

MR headsets can record the patient history verbally that is communicated by medical professionals, that anyone can access, including the nursing staff. Moreover, these headsets can analyze data and give reports to doctors in real time, thus eliminating the requirement to go through physical reports manually, making diagnosis more accurate and faster. MR glasses can link the digital images on the body of a patient and help medical practitioners in conducting real-time analysis.

Enhanced image-guided Surgery

enhanced-image-guided-surgery

MR develops personalized 3D models for each patient and visualizes the interior anatomy in a completely immersive environment, thus helping pre-operative simulations. Wearable MR devices, along with new emerging imaging technologies, can help in complex surgical procedures greatly, like reconstructive surgeries, where holographic overlays aid surgeons in viewing the bone better and identifying the path of blood vessels. As per Grand View Research, the global MR in healthcare market size in 2019 was valued at USD 54.2 million and is expected to increase at a CAGR of 48.7% from 2020 to 2027.

Medical training

In recent years, mixed realities have seen popularity in academics, where they can act as an aid for teachers in teaching various techniques and subjects. Students also hone their skills before they perform surgeries on patients. Also, doctors use MR for rehearsing complicated surgeries, thus saving their valuable time during the procedure, increasing their success rate.

The first AR system for surgery adds a 3D representation that helps the surgeon view the tissue, skin, and anatomy of the patient via his beam vision. A holographic AR platform has been developed by a digital healthcare company that provides surgeons with visualizations and patient information during surgery. This platform lets surgeons review 3D images of the specific anatomy to ensure the success of the surgical procedure. Augmented Reality, virtual reality, surgery, treatment, well-being, and self-care improve several aspects of healthcare.

Accurate disease and risk diagnosis

AR-based applications benefit doctors to detect, avoid, and treat numerous diseases with an improved prognosis. It can visualize information collected from several sensors into one unified interface for determining specific causes for a patient’s condition. Also, it allows doctors to monitor organs, lesions, veins, and other structures without invasive procedures.

Empowering healthcare professionals

MR empowers healthcare professionals to renew and rethink the healthcare industry by speeding up the process of diagnostics and streamlining care time, thus improving outcomes and enabling personalized experiences for patients. The surge in the clinical research shows positive results of mixed-effects treatment for patients generates positive impacts on healthcare professionals and patients as is anticipated to boost the market growth. The increased studies and research activities that signal the use of MR in certain diseases like mental health and pain management will increase the growth of sales in the forecast period.

Capabilities of Telemedicine

As more patients depend on virtual visits, telemedicine has become increasingly crucial, and VR has taken this procedure to the next level. In healthcare VR allows doctors to accomplish sensory tests on patients with monitor impairments like muscle weakness in patients suffering from stroke. Companies have been incorporating VR into telemedicine, XRHealth being the prime example.

Improving patient experience

Establishing a patient-doctor relationship is a vital aspect that aids in building trust between them. When communication is effective, concise, and clear, patients can trust doctors. MR helps in establishing it in a much more immersive manner. It assists doctors in explaining things in detail to patients for better understanding and clarity. In the healthcare sector, MR improves surgical accuracy and minimizes response time. Eventually, this leads to smooth treatment and also a satisfying experience for the patients.

Hesitance in implementing VR, AR, and MR

hesitance-in-implementing-vr-ar-and-mr

MR can be used in various situations in healthcare, from acute care units to home care. While MR technology is projected to increase patient satisfaction and outcomes and save costs, healthcare professionals have been encountering various challenges when they prepare to implement it. High investment costs, the lack of suitable skills among the medical practitioners, fear of data loss, creating a secure environment, defining reimbursement schemes, and establishing interoperability with the existing systems will likely stifle the market growth during the assessment period.

Also, as the integration of VR and AR has advanced significantly, certain challenges have been deterring its adoption on a massive scale in health care. Implementing VR and AR systems is expensive as the development of these programs needs top-quality graphics cards, computers, and hardware. Also, there must be a precise tracking system, specialized accessories and high-resolution displays. The execution process is slow, mostly because of the high cost incurred in its design and implementation. Compact educational constraints and face-to-face communication hinder VR and AR applications in health care. With these technologies through all-encompassing information going digital, the risk involved with data breaches surges.

In conclusion,

Over the anticipated period, despite these challenges, progresses in regulatory policies are predicted to ease the adoption of the technology. Factors such as speedy advancement in sensor technology, growing increased user acceptance, MR applications in medical treatment, and amplified workload of healthcare workers are pushing the adoption of MR in the global healthcare market. Also, the benefits of MR systems, like reduced human effort, better service quality, and improved operational efficiency, are estimated to boost the rise of mixed reality in the healthcare sector.

As per the estimation of Statista report, in 2025, the global MR market will surge by around 3.7 billion U.S. dollars, and the healthcare sector will grip the majority. It will not be shocking to see clinics and hospitals amplifying the use of AR, VR, and MR technologies in their clinical activities. So, it can be said that with the apparent limitations, the healthcare industry in India and across the globe is amplifying the integration of VR and AR and will advance in discovering the best solutions for both specialists and patients, thus making the health system work best for all.

Digital Disruption: Impact of Digital Transformation on Established Industries

Human society has been permanently changing in every aspect. It has experienced several challenges, including financial systems collapse, political conflicts, and wars. We live in a world where technology can blur the line between the digital and the physical. This always-on environment offers emerging companies the possibility to break long-held monopolies. It is a world of innumerable pitfalls and incredible opportunities. As technology is transforming the way humans behave and live, brands need to change with time.

To survive society and improve things, it is important to invest in communications, production, market, and technological progress. In this fiercely competitive environment, “innovate or die” is true for all brands. Flexibility is the only key trait to stay ahead in this competition. In the digital space, disruptive trends are emerging. It not only affects business operations but also transforms the way we market to and communicate with customers. IT impacts almost all the technologies and layers of society- social, health, education, forecasts, analysis, management, production, communications, and medical security.

Global spending on digital transformation has touched $1.59 trillion in 2021, up over 20% from the previous year. Adapting existing IT solutions using cloud extensions was a common approach to digital transformation in 2022, with the worldwide public cloud market estimated to reach more than $490 billion. As of 2022, around 90% of organizations have implemented cloud technologies with the highest adoption rate.

Digital Transformation

Digital Transformation refers to the alteration occurring when new business models and digital technologies spot the value proposition of the prevailing services and goods. The swift rise in the usage of mobile devices for work and personal use, a shift referred to as the consumerization of IT, has enhanced the potential for digital disruption across several industries.

Digital disruption generally happens after a digital innovation like the BYOD movement, the Internet of Things, machine learning, and big data. Digital innovation affects how customer behaviours and expectations evolve, resulting in organizations shifting how they create services and products, evaluate feedback, and produce marketing materials. This shift in digital strategy occurs at the societal, industry, organizational, and individual levels.

Examples of Digital Disruption

  • The digital camera business disrupted the photo processing and film photography industry
  • On-demand services like Uber have disrupted traditional services like taxis.
  • Freemium products like Dropbox, LinkedIn, or Spotify, which enable users to sample a basic item with the option of paying for the full order, emphasize developing a well-known brand behind a service or product.
  • The subscription economy business model used by companies like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon caused a disruption in the entertainment and media industries by changing how content can be monetized by advertisers and accessed by customers.
  • The rise of electronic reading has now redefined the publication and print industry.
  • Giants such as Nokia and Xerox were driven out of the business by newer technologies and newer players.

Impact of Digital Transformation on the Process of Business

impact of Digital Transformation on the IT Business Infrastructure

To remain competitive and adapt and improve new business processes, existing businesses must set up efforts while engaging in complementary and strategic cooperation. With various modern technological solutions, the optimization and improvement of the activity can be accompanied in various ways. Data integration throughout the organization is a strategically important decision. The biggest advantage of storing data in the centralized database and corporate systems is the chance to increase the ability to transmit information all over the organization and to reduce costs.

In the process of the digital transformation of any business organization, the organizational structure, business processes, and business models are changing.

Improved organizational structure: A much more disciplined approach to business all over the company irrespective of the physical place and/or location in the organization structure

Customer-driven business processes: Every operations department can put more emphasis on the customers and more effectively respond to product demand.

Management models: More informed management decisions with full information regarding the effectiveness in every division of the business organization.

Digital Transformation, in some sectors, involves production processes primarily. For manufacturing companies, this is particularly typical. Reducing costs while digitizing the development, testing, and production of new items is of paramount importance. Mobile applications have become more important to improve the internal communications of employees and production processes than to interact with customers, mainly not end-users. Information processing and large databases are more focused on production. The digitization of production procedures opens up several opportunities to develop industries and for globalization and internalization.

In the agricultural sector, digitization is being prepared, and transformation needs a change in training and education. During a pandemic, global supply chains are severely hampered or disrupted. Using global supply chains, the business problems associated with are-

  • Cultural differences
  • Foreign government regulations
  • Varying performance standards
  • Additional costs for local taxes and fees, inventory, and transformation
  • Greater time differences and geographic distances

Implementing the web-based supply chain management systems gives every participant a way of making information and data available more easily through portals and browsers. The Internet allows the move from sequential supply chains to simultaneous supply chains. Implementing a Supply Chain Management (SCM) system enables the move from sequential, push-based models to concurrent, pull-based models of production, allowing the business to be driven by customer demand and efficient customer response.

Impact of Digital Transformation on Customers and Employees

Impact of Digital Transformation on Customers and Employees

Digitization transforms any business and its way of work and changes the boundaries of consumption, distribution, and production. These trends are opportunities like the emergence of new products, techniques, and processes and threats to employees and employers who have to adapt to the organization of work and the distribution of skills and work. The overall effects of the labor market are dominated by the worldwide pandemic, which requires telecommuting for digital company managers and employees.

Digital transformation changes organizations from within, influencing management strategies and organizational structures as it influences their interaction with competitors, partners, and customers externally. Increasing dependence on innovative business models and developing new technologies redefines business processes in trade, reduces transaction costs, and optimizes business organizational structures.

Digital transformation, along with related business platforms, intensely alters the work of organizations. This leads to significant variations in labor force specialization and job retention. Digital transformation pursues maximizing capital assets by enhancing the intensity of labor in the mainstream. Digital business transformation is fundamentally a driver of organizational alteration, enabling more systematic control and monitoring of the work in the homework or the office of the employees. It provides new opportunities for external and internal cooperation.

The impact of Digital Transformation on the IT Business Infrastructure

impact of Digital Transformation on the IT Business Infrastructure2

The introduction of one single integration platform for business that supports every type of business integration between different Business to Businesses (B2B), from Business to Government (B2G), between different applications Application to Application (A2A), EDI (Electronic Document Management), Integration with external software solution offers through electronic invoicing, API management, and other services ensure a competitive advantage. An integrated platform ensures seamless integration of every system in cloud services, data storage, application, and company

The big IT companies like IBM, SAPO, and Oracle offer in their portfolio of products and services, database management technologies and cloud services. DBaaS (Database as a service) is an operational and architectural approach that allows IT vendors to offer database functionality as a service to users. Data usage is the largest business in the world. Around 1.4 trillion dollars from Facebook and Alphabet come from consumer data as well as their use by companies.

Competition Through Innovation: The Modern Crucible

Digitization has improved competition in the world of business. Even if your business is operating in a niche market, now you are competing globally. It has never been more important for companies to study the strengths and weaknesses of their rivals. Companies are now stuck in the never-ending game of innovation.

Here are how the major players have been investing in innovation without toppling their overall business model.

Mobile Brainstorming

Employees of an organization do not sit at their desktops the entire day. They are on the go, collaborating on slides during their networking lunch or checking email between meetings. Fierce TechExec’s study conducted found that 71% of workers spent more than 2 hours a week accessing information about the company via mobile devices. Embracing mobile technology in day-to-day operations and using mobile technology to our advantage has become very important. Mobile technology like voice assistants and smartphone helps employees to work more efficiently. When you move quickly, innovation can only happen, and mobile is the best way of iterating with speed

Startup Collaborations

By collaborating with a startup, established brands can augment their agility. Large companies are recognizing the enormous predictive potential of startups for new customer needs and market trends. Startups recognize that market knowledge and specialized focus are keys to success. Large companies, however, cannot invest in micro-interests as startups can.

A PWC Global Fintech report found that 88% of the legacy banks were threatened by new financial technology. Thus, 82% of the legacy banks said they would collaborate with emerging fintech startups. It is evident that to create more innovation, even in conservative markets, organizations have been partnering with startups.

Empathy mapping

Empathy maps are referred to as tools to predict the changing behavior of people. They help determine what customers think, say, do, and feel in response to the marketing. Empathy mapping is used to identify the pain points, perceptions, wants, needs, and beliefs of customers. With innovative messaging, resolve these pain points that help them overcome their blockades to your brand.

Phygital innovation

IoT, or the Internet of Things, is on fire. IoT has transformed the way what we refer to as ‘phygital’ phenomenon. Phygital technology has been merging the digital and physical into a cohesive experience. Usually, Phygital technology is implemented in a retail setting. For instance, a retailer can integrate brick-and-mortar locations with the eCommerce experience, such as smart mirrors. For optimizing businesses with phygital technology, you do not need to be in retail.

Boeing, for example, used AR (Augmented Reality) to help its employees interface more safely with equipment. Consider what PTC has been doing to shake up the manufacturing and industrial world through the use of AR in the workplace.

The worldwide AR market size was valued at $42.20 billion in 2022, and in 2023, it is projected to grow to $62.75 billion. This technology is going to alter the world for the better. Also, Phygital technology bridges the gap between customers willing to shop online and those who wish to shop in-store. Embrace the phygital and get creative with how you conduct business, train employees, and sell to customers.

Exceeding Expectations

Today’s customers are more impatient, more demanding, and more curious. So, innovation is everything while competing with impatient customers. Especially in the fast-paced digital environment, future brands need to understand the customer’s mind. While exceeding their expectations, this helps you to meet customer needs. Using these tools helps in digital innovation that can deliver on customer expectations.

Online Collaboration Tools

You need to hear information from the customer directly. This is the reason why some web design companies are successful. They conduct real user testing to determine whether UX (User Experience) is up to snuff. Use online collaboration tools to glean feedback from your employees and customers.

A list of practical tools that help businesses transform digitally include-

practical tools that help businesses transform digitally

  • Digital Marketing
  • Agile
  • Transformation Storytelling
  • Two-Speed IT
  • Digital Twins
  • Data and Analytics
  • Blockchain
  • Quantum Computing
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Cyber Security
  • Modern Workplace
  • Design Thinking
  • Additive Manufacturing
  • Internet of Things
  • Cloud

In Conclusion,

In the swiftly developing digital landscape of today, transformation is not a luxury but has become a need for businesses to endure relevant and competitive. Transformation is not easy. However, the payoff can’t be ignored. While embracing technology, fundamentally, you are changing how you look at your customers and how you do your business. By embracing modern practices, trends, and tools that complement your business practices, you become a brand of the future. To gain a competitive advantage, companies must embrace digital disruption. When an industry experiences digital disruption, we can say that consumer needs are shifting. Therefore, understanding the disruption aids businesses to keep the existing clientele happy and create opportunities for new customers.

Insights on Improvising Healthcare Services with Valuable Operational Data

Nowadays industries such as healthcare use advanced artificial intelligence and analytical tools to streamline business processes and provide personalized services to patients. This sector is experiencing a rapid revolution in the use of data.

Embracing a data-centric mindset in healthcare opens up a floodgate of opportunities. It has the potential to enhance the patient experience and enable personalized medicine. It also allows healthcare providers to shift from a reactive approach to a proactive one, leading to improved care. Additionally, utilizing data in healthcare creates opportunities to enhance the environment and optimize efficiency.

Knowing the power of data supremacy, the amount of data generated by healthcare organizations, ranging from patient information to clinical data, is astonishing.

While clinical data often takes center stage in digital transformation efforts, it is crucial not to overlook the significance of operational data. Operational data encompasses patient demographics, appointment scheduling, visit information, and billing data. This type of data provides valuable insights into healthcare operations and patient care.

This article delves into the importance of harnessing operational data to tackle various health and care challenges. With the usage of such efficient data, healthcare professionals can enhance care coordination, improve scheduling and capacity management, foster innovation, and more.

Research Done By Healthcare Setups

Healthcare organizations and research institutions want to enhance health and care by simplifying the tasks of healthcare teams and accelerating digital transformation, all while prioritizing the use of data.

When we talk about managing data for life and empowering organizations to take charge of their data, considerable effort is invested in working with intricate clinical datasets. These datasets encompass vital information like medications, diagnoses, and care plans, modeled using openEHR.

Healthcare organizations must deploy necessary strategies that can manage the process of data extraction and give meaning to the vast volumes of unstructured content. Additionally, there are various other crucial healthcare datasets, such as genomics data, imaging data, claims data, and clinical trials. Often customers seek help to solve the issues that arise with other important sets of data.

What is Operational Data

So what is Operational Data?

Information like demographics, visit information, scheduling appointments and billing is operational data. Specifically preserved in a structured format within the clinical and administrative systems, this data is accessed by very limited users. The secondary usage of this data is for performing analytics that is often done offline and is limited to the ability for proactive intervention.

Organizations are presently striving to bring a generational shift in healthcare delivery services. From EHR to a patient-centered view, healthcare setups now want systems that can support end-to-end patient issues across the entire healthcare industry.

And for that, there are innovative healthcare systems established in London building new patient-centered services such as shared care planning services. This particular service is now available across all five Integrated Care Systems. The said initiative has unlocked silos of clinical data and has established a vendor-neutral setup that caters to real-time data usage and harnesses its potential wherever needed across the regions.

Harnessing Similar Patterns to Unlock Operational Data

Harnessing Similar Patterns to Unlock Operational Data

Based on the research done by various healthcare experts and scientists across the globe, it was found that harnessing similar patterns into operational data is quite possible. Let us discuss further why we should do this and what sort of problems can be solved by adopting such a view toward operational data.

Inadequate Coordination of Care

Imagine a scenario where a community or social care team is scheduled to visit a person’s home, only to find out that the person has recently been hospitalized due to a fall. Unfortunately, community and social care systems typically have no visibility of emergency admissions or related encounters. Having a centralized and reliable source of information that displays or alerts on emergency or acute admissions throughout the entire healthcare system could significantly reduce wasted visits and greatly improve the coordination of care.

Scheduling Without Effectiveness

The lack of shared information among different healthcare providers poses a challenge in identifying available resources and scheduling care efficiently. This limitation hampers the ability to promptly deliver care to those in need. However, there is a promising opportunity to practive predictive analytics and advanced AI models that enable resolving bottlenecks in care delivery before they occur.

Fragmented Capacity Management

During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare systems faced significant difficulties in obtaining accurate information on bed capacity in Intensive Care Units (ICUs). Some resorted to manual processes and cumbersome excel spreadsheets to share this vital information. With the implementation of cohesive and automated systems, healthcare providers can overcome this fragmentation and gain real-time visibility into bed availability, ensuring efficient utilization of resources during emergencies and beyond.

No Innovation and Proper Ecosystem

The absence of comprehensive information on patient activity poses a significant hurdle to innovation and the establishment of patient-centered ecosystems. To foster innovation and support the development of regional healthcare ecosystems, it is crucial to provide real-time access to patient information through dynamic dashboards, events, or open APIs. Such transparency can spur collaboration, enable novel approaches, and enhance overall healthcare services

Late Discharge and Blocking of Beds

A common challenge arises when medically fit individuals continue to occupy hospital beds due to a lack of awareness about available social care packages that match their needs. But when operational data is integrated from both health and care sectors, a robust platform can be established to address this issue and other similar use cases. This= integrated approach facilitates the efficient matching of individuals with appropriate social care resources, enabling timely discharges and minimizing bed blocking.

Existing systems may be available to customers to fulfill various requirements in terms of achieving population health management solutions or care records, but often this data remains locked and is not accessible to everyone.

Had this data been given in the hands of the right research and analytical team, they can:

  • Transition from the traditional practice of exchanging operational data between systems by using HL7 v2 and observe a shift towards establishing a common repository of important information.
  • Enable real-time streaming of capabilities that will permit healthcare providers to subscribe to those events, specifically patient cohorts or activities, ensuring stakeholders get updated and informed on the critical improvements leading to timely decision making.
  • Separate data from applications and gain the flexibility to integrate existing solutions that are seamlessly the potential to create new data visualizations, BI reports, and AI models. This data decoupling will empower organizations to harness the best tools and technologies that can analyze and present information and can bring agility.

Presently, there are a set of healthcare groups in the world who utilize these advanced healthcare systems and by adopting this approach, they get enough benefits.

To give an example, Slovenia had issues with patient identity and operational data that were scattered across several systems and frequently unavailable or only partially accessible. As previously indicated, this circumstance led to problems with care coordination and ineffective scheduling. The Slovenian National eHealth project is now putting a federated operational repository into place to address these issues head-on. This repository will act as the nation’s consolidated and reliable source for data on patient demographics and ADT (Admission, Discharge, Transfer). The ultimate objective is to provide a solid base that permits the development of a modular ecosystem made up of linked apps. This ecosystem will deal with a variety of use cases, including both primary patient care and secondary data use.

How Does it Work

Historically, operational data interchange entailed the difficult process of sending data across systems through HL7 ADT communications. Those who have implemented systems based on this method are familiar with the complexities and business logic required, even in smaller-scale deployments inside a single firm.

Many healthcare organizations nowadays are fully modifying this method to revolutionize it. In order to provide a single source of truth, we propose moving away from messaging and toward contemporary RESTful APIs that guarantee all data is kept in a vendor-neutral fashion. Depending on the needs, the data can either be spread across many supplier groups or consolidated.

Within the business, this architectural strategy can be scaled up and effectively shown in the field of clinical data. The only distinction is in the standards that may be chosen. Using FHIR for operational data while using openEHR for clinical data is the best practice. The same tested patterns—automated cloud-based deployment, ongoing security measures, elastic scalability, and high-performance capabilities—are used.

What happens when all this is combined with clinical data

What happens when all this is combined with clinical data:

Moreover, by merging operational data with clinical data, healthcare providers can access a wealth of valuable insights into patient care. Leveraging the capabilities of openEHR, healthcare organizations can effectively model intricate clinical data encompassing medications, diagnoses, and care plans. Integrating this comprehensive clinical information with operational data allows for a holistic view of patient care.

Analyzing this merged dataset enables healthcare organizations to uncover patterns and trends that can significantly impact treatment decisions and ultimately enhance patient outcomes. This integrated approach also breaks down data silos, fostering improved collaboration among healthcare providers. As a result, patient care becomes more coordinated and cohesive, with multiple providers working together seamlessly to provide the best possible care.

Conclusion

Digital transformation efforts can only go effective if operational data is added to the system. This data can help you give enough insights to coordinate, schedule, innovate, and perform capacity management. To fully understand the capability of operational data various healthcare systems must break down silos and set up a vendor-neutral ecosystem that can provide real-time usage and can enable re-using of data across all regions.

15 Best Disruptive Supply Chain and Logistics Applications

Right now, the supply chain and logistics industries are exploding while also being at the heart of a dramatic digital transformation. Working in supply chain or logistics management can be stressful and busy. Keeping on top of your to-do list, tracking orders and deliveries, and building supplier and customer relationships is challenging as ever for the most efficient and organized inventory manager. The high competitiveness in this industry needs goods to be delivered fast and when needed. To be ahead of its competitors, companies make use of smartphones and mobile apps to manage and automate all processes from shipments and stock inventory to supervising fleets in real-time. The right tech stack or software can improve supply chain profitability, productivity, and functionality, lower expenses, and improve the satisfaction levels of the clients, ultimately making your job easier. In this article, we have shared some supply chain and logistics apps that can help make your life easier. Also, we have mentioned how some must-have modules of logistics mobile applications can benefit your business.

Essential Modules of a Mobile Logistics App

Essential Modules of a Mobile Logistics App

  • Location Tracking

    The module has been designed to transmit and receive information on the location of the vehicles. Generally, it is tracked either using a cellular connection or by utilizing satellite signals. The app uses this information from both options, as tracking the location through cellular data relies heavily on network coverage which is not available always.

    In urban areas, cellular tracking is great because several cell towers are available for keeping the device connected and sending coordinates of the vehicle’s whereabouts to the server. In case the network is not available, the data is stored in the internal phone memory and is transmitted to the server when the connection is restored.

    On the contrary, satellite tracking is supported by GPS modules. The GPS tracker receives information about the exact location of the vehicle and then transfers that to the server via a satellite modem or any network connection (Wi-Fi or cellular) available. The application may use the data from the one connected to the application through Bluetooth or the one already on the driver’s smartphone.

    This module has been designed in a way that users can optimize the cargo for delivery. When a shipment has to be loaded and delivered in just a limited amount of time, this module helps the manager check the base and assign a driver whose vehicle is near the cargo and who has not reached its load limit.

    A manager can assign the task to a driver over the admin panel when he is found. With a push notification, the driver gets informed about his new task.

  • Cargo Tracking

    Cargo Tracking

    Logistics companies need to supervise their cargo apart from loading units or tracking vehicles. So, this module has been designed to give appropriate information regarding the item present in the van.

    For inventory management, there are two ways to implement the system:

    • NFT or RFDI Technologies
    • QR-Code

    Either you can use a distinct QR code for every item that may be scanned with the cellphone camera through an app or other special scanner. You can apply near-field communication (NFT) technologies or radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies alternatively.

    RFID improves the scanning speed and processing the units enormously as compared to traditional code scanning. This is because it uses radio waves to detect and identify the object. It comprises a tag and a scanner with an embedded antenna and chip.

    These tags may be passive or active. Passive tags are detected within a range of 25 meters, while the distance may reach up to 100 meters for active. Of course, the logistics industry prefers to use active tags. NFC applies the same principle also. The difference lies in the distance, which makes the scanning possible.

    The NFC tags must be positioned close to the scanner. It is not possible to scan every object from the parking lot at once. The employee needs to check the item and every truck. The scanned data concealed within the tags include details regarding the cargo carrier, tracking, the package receiver, and the time when it got delivered. In this way, the company could avoid delivering the wrong package or losing the package.

  • Daily Log

    A daily log is a module to collect information on the daily log of a driver with the help of the features that include:

    • The personal information of a driver
    • Vehicle’s plate number and model
    • Detailed cargo description
    • Passed mileage
    • Hours of work

    This application automates the process of management and improves the efficiency of fleet operation by providing information on the whereabouts of the vehicle, the approximate time of its arrival at the destination, and the mileage it has passed. Managers can check the logs of the driver to monitor whether anyone is working overtime and control the vehicle’s state as per the drivers’ reports.

  • Information on the Behavior of the Driver

    This module has been designed to collect information about the behavior of the driver on the road via GPS. It allows tracking of the exact location of the fleet number and receives information about the engine start-up, shut-down times, driving speed, and then transmits the data to the manager.

    Cases of speeding, injury crashes, and irrational driving will be reported to the manager. The data collected can be used to develop and enforce a driving policy of the enterprise to regulate any violations and avoid unwanted driver behavior. This encourages employees to use company trucks for personal use, and they also work more effectively.

  • Vehicle Inspection

    This will store the information regarding the state of the vehicle and also the defects revealed after it was used. The application will keep records of the body integrity check of the vehicles, the engine compartment, the brake system, and the state of the undercarriage.

    The manager can revise the inspection results and schedule the required repairs. This eliminates the possibility of a sudden accident or brake-down that may occur because of giving away some parts.

Top Disruptive Supply Chain and Logistics Applications

Top Disruptive Supply Chain and Logistics Applications

A dedicated mobile application for logistics companies acts as a lifesaver and a real business when we talk about operating in the modern tough market conditions. Below we have mentioned the top supply chain and logistics applications presently prevalent in the market.

  • EasyStock

    Got a dynamic, extensive inventory that needs to be constantly optimized and managed along the ongoing workflow? EasyStock is your convenient cloud-based solution just for the purposes that can be integrated with any kind of ERP that you are currently using. This solution has every optimizing and forecasting feature needed while running inventory basics more efficiently.

  • Tasklet Factory

    It is a great mobile WMS that can connect with standard Microsoft Dynamics 365 FO/AX and Microsoft Dynamics 365 BC/NAV. Its user-friendly interface works both on and offline and is easy to customize. The mobile WMS app scans a barcode to collect data through handheld devices and then sends it directly to your ERP. This app increases the product flows of Microsoft ERP users while reducing error rates and improving warehouse processes and efficiency.

  • Logistimo Plus

    This Logistimo Plus app is a full-on worldwide logistics and supply chain system covering the fundamental facets of businesses far and wide. From processing orders, transportation planning, and inventory management to performance analysis, partnership-making features, and supply chain automation- Logistimo may be deemed a real mastodon among the apps of this category. This app works offline as well.

  • Evernote

    Evernote is a great app for organizing important documents, images, and files. The voice recording functionality enables you to capture vital memos when you are away from your laptop, or you cannot spend time typing out notes. This app is perfect for you when you are running between the warehouse and your desk or on the move. This free-to-use app drastically improves the ease of document management and planner productivity on the go.

  • OmniFocus

    This app is the best iOS-exclusive logistics app for the flexible management of tasks. Its solution boasts plenty of workflow-optimization space, a great intuitive design to work with via iPad, iPhone, or MacBook, and an interface built with taste. Its Apple exclusivity may be considered the only downside of this app. However, when we talk about the status and recognition of brands, ‘i devices’ are considered the trendiest solutions that you can employ in your business.

  • Hawk-Eye Trucking Log Book

    Are you in need of an intuitive system interface to help you with and control the performance of the hired drivers? Hawk Eye provides users with a well-tried-and-tested solution aimed at such particular needs. This app offers opportunities for stable GPS tracking through an interface that is equipped with interactive maps, smart routing, fleet performance reports, live monitoring, and more.

  • Mobile SCM

    When we talk about trucking and logistics app development, tech-savvy solution providers aim to deliver vast cost-saving, business-optimization solutions through an easy-to-grasp, simple interface. The developers of Mobile SCM have achieved that by offering an intuitive app that helps users to cut costs with affordable supply chain monitors that help you to boost the ROI.

  • Zendesk

    This customer issue management application offers a complete insight into the problems via one shared combined inbox irrespective of channel. Zendesk lets you, your customers, and your team track issue resolutions in real-time. The reporting and analytics feature of this app highlights trends in issues such that you can identify opportunities for business improvement. You can review team performances through KPIs and also identify any training needs.

  • Link Bollore Logistics

    Link Ballore is yet another outstanding solution for optimizing the workflow. It is a mobile supply chain application that efficiently manages shipments of ordered goods, generates offline handy push notifications reports, improves service delivery processes in many ways, and helps organize access to shipment documents.

  • GoCanvas

    The daily Route Tracker mobile application is developed by GoCanvas to document customer and driver details, fuel consumption, arrival and departure times, and more from a tablet or smartphone. This fully optimizable daily timesheet template app calculates the time spent at each stop automatically. Also, you can run reports and then export them as printable and digital PSFs.

  • Scandit

    Scandit is an easy-to-use and fast app for barcode scanning. In terms of supply chain and logistics organization, you may use it in the enterprise to allow employees to cope with the process of registering the items in the inventory easily. This ‘small gear in the big system’ is one of the major aspects of speeding up the overall business performance.

  • CoPilot Truck

    CoPilot Truck offers truck-legal navigation, which includes routes that avoid unsuitable roads and low bridges. Also, it offers a post-trip analysis of the route that is taken against the one that was originally planned. This enables you to review operating and fuel costs to find the most cost-effective route. This app offers improved customer service by offering delivery based on ETA on real-time road conditions.

  • BooksyBiz

    At quite an affordable price, you get this universal business appointment booking tool where you will be able to organize an individual calendar for appointments. By choosing the most fitting date and time, clients can book a meeting without having to specify any details or have to call up. Also, there are customer loyalty and marketing tools and email and social media integrations.

  • GasBuddy

    The sole objective of GasBuddy is very simple as it is relevant and efficient in checking the prices of gas in the required vicinities and also finding the cheapest and optimal options for your logistics. As all the pricing info is gathered in one interface, you can save a lot on choosing the most cost-efficient gas station for specific routes.

  • Halo

    The Halo app is all about analysis as well as valuable reporting. It provides a perceptive glance into every underlying operation for analyzing the overall performance of the supply chain. It also checks which moments can be tweaked to enhance it. Halo is a go-to tool for data warehousing automation, handy visualizations, and smart analysis.

Best Disruptive Supply Chain and Logistics Application

Wrapping Up

One application may contain all the modules and even more that are mentioned above. Logistics app development will increase the efficiency of your fleet and management. It will help the drivers to organize while keeping them aware of timetables and rules. Mobile logistics apps ease the process of working for the employees, bring down expenses by regulating the logs, and improve customer satisfaction rates. Also, they diminish the use of corporate vehicles by drivers for personal purposes. If you wish to meet the competition fully equipped, you must put your money into high-quality application development for transportation and logistics management.

Technology Can Boost Your Retail Business Success!Amplify Your E-Commerce Sales: How AR

As the world moves beyond the pandemic, direct-to-customer (D2C) businesses are presented with the task of adapting to the shifting retail environment. In the current retail landscape, where e-commerce solutions are becoming increasingly prevalent, businesses are searching for innovative ways to connect with customers and drive sales. One such amazing technology that is gaining popularity is augmented reality (AR).

This is specifically pertinent in the business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce, where AR-enabled virtual stores are gaining traction. These showrooms allow companies to showcase their products and services to customers more immersively, regardless of their physical location. Customers are now able to envisage products in their real-world environment by employing AR, which allow creating a more tailored and winning shopping experience.

With e-commerce as one of the front-runners, AR technology is gaining drive in numerous industries. Industry giants including IKEA, Sephora, Nike, ASOS and several others have leveraged AR to boost their customers’ online shopping experience. The reason why these companies are capitalizing in AR specifies the massive potential of this technology for the retail industry. Some recent studies specify that the global market value of AR in the retail and e-commerce industry is expected to reach $6.74 billion by 2028, with a CAGR of 20% during the forecast period 2022-2028. To cope up with this swiftly budding technological landscape, the retail businesses must embrace AR and enjoy the most of its many benefits.

Our all-inclusive study on AR in e-commerce offers valued insights into how businesses can harness this technology to grow and succeed in the competitive retail market. So, read on to learn how AR can transform your e-commerce business and aid you to be obvious from the crowd.

What Is Augmented Reality?

AR or Augmented Reality is a pictorial technology integrating three critical features: real-time interaction, seamless integration of virtual and real-world elements, and accurate 3D registration of virtual and physical objects. AR technology overlaps digital content and info onto a user’s real-life environment, thus generate an improved virtual experience of the physical world. AR improves a user’s insight of reality through incorporating computer-generated displays, sound, text, visuals and graphics.

Google Maps’ Live View feature is a key example of AR technology that helps users envisions their destinations in the real world. Popular applications like Nintendo’s Pokémon Go and AR filters on social media platforms like Instagram and Snapchat are also widely used examples of AR technology. AR is getting implemented in many industries, including consumer retail and products, to enhance their marketing and operational abilities. It’s not just limited to gaming or navigation applications. Leading e-commerce brands and in-store retailers are investing heavily in AR to create immersive brand experiences and stand out in a competitive market.

AR: Rapid Flight, a force that should be reckoned with

The usage of AR is growing along with mobile usage, with projections suggesting that nearly all smartphone users and 75% of the global population will be regular AR users by 2025.

70% of industry executives believe the AR sector will bring in greater revenues than the VR market. Incorporating AR experiences into products can increase conversion rates by up to 94% in some cases.

According to recent polls, 76% of individuals desire to utilize augmented reality as a useful tool in their daily life. An overwhelming 92% of Generation Z individuals are interested in using AR for shopping, indicating that younger consumers are likely to lead the widespread adoption of this technology. It’s crucial for businesses to take note of this trend and invest in AR to provide innovative experiences for their customers.

augmented reality

What Does the Progression of E-commerce Through Augmented Reality Entail?

The use of augmented reality (AR) in marketing and advertising campaigns dates back to 2008, when BMW first utilized this technology. However, this early foray into AR was not very successful due to the relatively new concept. It wasn’t until 2016 when Pokémon GO game took the commercial potential of AR by storm. This mobile game captivated a vast audience with its advanced features, leading businesses such as cafes, hotels, and restaurants to seek inclusion as “Pokemon gyms and Pokestops” to attract a larger customer base.

During the pandemic, a significant portion of US-based e-commerce retailers transitioned from physical channels to online portals in just three months. This sudden shift led to e-commerce market growth equivalent to a decade in just a quarter. In fact, over half of e-commerce consumers reported that AR-based shopping has been very important to them since the beginning of the pandemic.

Furthermore, more than half of e-commerce consumers reported that AR-based shopping had become increasingly important during the pandemic. Retailers that integrated AR-based solutions experienced remarkable sales growth, with some observing as much as a 200% increase. These developments signify the immense potential of AR in the e-commerce industry and how it has evolved over the years.

Different Types of AR That You Can Utilize In Your E-Commerce Business

Incorporating augmented reality (AR) into e-commerce operations has become increasingly popular due to the various capabilities of AR-based applications. AR technology comes in different types, each type offering exclusive features for the businesses.

  • Marker-based AR Apps

    Marker-based AR Apps is one of the most popular types of AR applications. These apps identify an object or marker through the camera of a smart device and show info related to it on the screen. This type of AR is also known as Image Recognition AR or Image Recognition-based. Once the marker is sensed, the app swaps it with a three-dimensional version of the object. Thus it let users to check it in detail from diverse angles.

  • Markerless AR Apps

    Unlike the marker-based AR, markerless AR applications do not need a prompt from an object or marker. Instead, users can place virtual objects anywhere they like and interact with them freely.

  • Location-based AR

    Location-based augmented reality is a markerless AR that employs geographic placement to display digital content to consumers at specified places. This type of AR is popular in games like Pokémon GO, which displays digital characters in real-world locations.

  • Projection-based AR

    This is a type of AR that necessitates an exact process where synthetic light is projected onto physical surfaces, to generate a hologram-like effect. Users can understand object specifications by interacting with the projected image. This technology has been employed in movies like Star Wars.

  • Overlay AR

    This comprises of an application that overlap digital content onto the mobile screen so that it gets a seamless part of the real world. This means that the digital content is combined with the physical environment naturally and in an immersive way.

  • Contour-based AR

    It emphasizes on the borders, contours, and edges of real-world objects to sense and track them and then overlays digital content onto these objects. The digital content in this type of AR is offered to create a sense of interaction with the physical environment, to showcase that the digital content is truly a part of the real world.

different types of ar that you can utilize in your e commerce business

What Rewards Does Augmented Reality Offer To E-Commerce?

As per Google, 60% of people are concerned in envisaging how a product fits into their lives before obtaining. Augmented reality technology offers an excellent opportunity for e-commerce companies to provide a realistic shopping experience to their customers. In the following section, we will discuss some of the most impactful benefits of AR in e-commerce:

  • AR Improves Customer Engagement

    Augmented reality improves customer engagement by providing an interactive experience on e-commerce websites and applications. By offering an immersive customer experience, customers are more likely to stay longer on the shopping platform, increasing the likelihood of a purchase. Even if they don’t make an immediate purchase, a positive customer experience can improve engagement and brand loyalty. Augmented reality, particularly for beauty, fashion, and home decor industries, offers a “try before you buy” approach, allowing customers to feel like the product is right there.

  • AR Reaches New Customers

    Augmented reality can help reach new customers, particularly in today’s competitive market. Creating attractive AR campaigns can help e-commerce companies grab customers’ attention. The impact of AR in mobile application development and marketing activities is evident, with industries ranging from education to healthcare leveraging its capabilities. IKEA is an example of an e-commerce company that uses AR-based campaigns to target new users and improve their shopping experience. IKEA’s mobile application, “Ikea’s Place App,” joined forces with Apple’s ARKit in 2017, allowing users to place IKEA furniture virtually anywhere in their homes or offices. Apple is another example to includes AR in its latest features and updates to improve the shopping experience, helping brands attract and target new users.

  • AR Helps in E-Commerce Higher Sales

    AR has been shown to upsurge sales significantly in the e-commerce industry, thus it is demonstrating to be a game-changer. A study led by Harvard Business Review discovered that consumers who utilized augmented reality were 19.8% more likely to obtaining than those who did not use AR. This defines the power of AR for driving revenue growth of the businesses. In fact, Shopify provides a great example of the positive impact of AR on sales. Since introducing 3D models in AR to its online marketplace in 2018, the Canadian e-commerce company has experienced an impressive increase of up to 250% in conversion rates on its product pages. These results indicate the immense potential of augmented reality technology in transforming the e-commerce industry and driving business growth.

  • AR Strengthens Customer Relationships

    Augmented Reality has several benefits for e-commerce businesses. One of them is enhancing customer relationships through an immersive and seamless shopping experience. When customers are able try any product virtually, it boost their faith and become faithful to the brand, leading to improved conversion rates. Besides, AR is also able to develop consumers’ memory, thus makes it easier for them to recall the brand and reappear for future purchases. This is especially helpful to build a long-lasting impression on their customers.

  • AR Enriches Conversion Rates

    Studies have shown that AR in e-commerce can significantly improve conversion rates, with brands that use AR or VR for advertising their products observing a 94% increase in conversion rates. For instance, Facebook’s AR partner, Vertebrae, reported a 90% rise in consumer conversion rates for customers engaging with AR compared to those who don’t. AR’s ability to provide a more interactive and realistic view of products has been proven to be a game-changer for the e-commerce businesses seeking to increase their conversion rates.

    what rewards does augmented reality offer to e-commerce

  • AR Improves Supply Chain Management

    Implementing augmented reality (AR) in an e-commerce app can unlock several potential benefits in the field of supply chain management. It enables access to real-time data on inventory levels and locations, which in turn facilitates informed decision-making for replenishing stock and streamlining inventory management processes. Furthermore, it provides warehouse staff with real-time updates on order packaging and shipping, leading to improved accuracy and more efficient order fulfillment. This reduces dependencies on retail and supply chain teams and eliminates time-consuming inventory analysis processes, thereby optimizing retail business operations that depend on the supply chain.

  • AR Reduces Return Rates

    One of the major challenges that e-commerce businesses face is the high return rate of products. Customers frequently return the products soon after they receive them. Have you ever wondered why this happens? Studies have discovered the key reason for high return rates is are mainly due to improper sizing, fitting, or design of the products, especially for the clothing or related accessories. AR technology enables customers to virtually try out products and gain a comprehensive understanding of them. By providing 3D views, customers can visualize how a product will look in their space, something that static images or short videos cannot effectively convey. This technology ultimately gives customers more confidence in their purchasing decisions.

AR in E-commerce Success: Real-world Examples of How the Top Brands are Benefiting

When making a purchase, consumers need to feel confident that the product they are considering will meet their needs. Augmented reality (AR) technology can preview products and services, helping consumers make informed decisions. Additionally, AR can facilitate the selection process, empowering consumers to choose the right product from the comfort of their own space and at a convenient time. As we look ahead to 2023, learn here some emerging AR trends that e-commerce businesses should keep an eye on.

Online Apps for Fashion with Virtual Try On

Have you ever seen something worn by a mannequin while shopping and admired how good it looked, only to be disappointed by the fit or color when you tried it on? Such experiences can lead to poorer conversion rates in online shopping. Virtual try-on solutions using AR technology is an effective option to provide customers with the right information. Virtual try-on solutions are particularly popular in the fashion, beauty, and lifestyle industries. It let customers to try on makeup, dresses, shoes, hair colors, and other accessories virtually, which can upturn the overall shopping experience. As per a survey, more than half of respondents believe that AR is the best way available for checking out new products.

Beauty and Personal Care

Sephora Virtual Artist — Sephora Virtual Artist allows customers to try on makeup virtually. The app uses AR to superimpose makeup onto the customer’s face, allowing them to see how it would look on them before making a purchase. And now, Sephora is updating its Virtual Artist feature on its app and website with live 3D facial recognition technology from ModiFace. This update will improve facial tracking and rendering to provide users a more accurate virtual try-on experience. The 3D version of the app is expected to perform even better, with a focus on providing a simple user experience to increase conversions. Other retailers and brands are expected to follow suit.

L’Oreal Paris — L’Oreal Paris has developed the Makeup Genius and Share Genius apps, enabling users to virtually try on their products before purchasing. The brand has also collaborated with Facebook Meta and Instagram to offer social media users the opportunity to try out its cosmetics through AR makeup try-on game filters. In addition, L’Oreal has partnered with Snapchat to allow Snap users to try out its makeup products via an AR filter.

Lenskart — Lenskart, a popular eyewear retailer, has harnessed the power of AR to provide customers with a seamless and worry-free online shopping experience. Through its innovative mobile app, customers can try on various eyeglasses and sunglasses without leaving the comfort of their homes. The app uses cutting-edge AR technology to scan the customer’s face with 360-degree angles and capture 463+ facial points. This allows the app to create a precise 3D model of the customer’s face, which can then be used to try on different eyeglasses with the 3D try-on filter. The use of AR by Lenskart has altered the traditional way of getting spectacles and eyeglasses. The online eyewear shopping has become more convenient, and enjoyable than before. Overall, Lenskart has set a new standard for the eyewear industry, providing a more tailored and engaging shopping experience to their customers.

Warby Parker — Warby Parker is a well-known eyewear retailer that has successfully implemented AR into its e-commerce solution. They have developed an app that allows customers to try on glasses virtually using their smartphone or tablet. This has been well-received by customers and has helped to drive sales and reduce returns. It has also been particularly useful during the COVID-19 pandemic, as it allows customers to try on glasses from the safety of their own homes.

Clothing

ASOS – ASOS, an online fashion retailer, has launched a feature known as “See My Fit.” With this feature, customers can view up to 500 products per week on six diverse models, each with a unique body shape, to simulate how the garment would look on different body types. The technology behind “See My Fit” maps each product digitally onto the models, considering the garment’s size, cut, and fit. As a result, customers can gain a realistic and engaging presentation of how the product would look on someone with a similar body shape. By reducing the gap between online and in-store shopping, this feature enhances customers’ understanding of how the product would fit them before buying and reduces product returns.

Zeekit — Zeekit is a pioneering AR-based fashion startup acquired by Walmart and has transformed the industry with its ZEEKIT “Virtual Fitting Room” app. The app enables customers to upload full-length photos and virtually try on various clothes, creating an online shopping experience akin to in-store shopping.

Shoes

NIKE — a leading fashion and apparel brand, recognized that customers often purchase the wrong shoe size when shopping online, with approximately 60% of people experiencing this issue. To combat this problem, NIKE turned to AR technology and partnered with 8th Wall and BDRG studios to create its web-based AR app, NIKE FIT. This innovative app requires only one input from the user to measure their foot size accurately and then uses a virtual AR-based try-on filter to show how the footwear will look on the user’s feet.

Home Furnishing and Decor

IKEA — A noteworthy example of AR technology transforming the customer experience in e-commerce is IKEA. With the launching of the IKEA Place app, the retailer has disrupted the industry by offering customers the ability to preview furniture in their homes before purchasing. This personalized experience allows for a more realistic and immersive shopping experience, providing a distinct advantage over competitors. Furthermore, by utilizing AR technology, IKEA can drive higher sales by making shopping more convenient for customers. Given the retailer’s warehouse locations, which are typically situated outside of city limits, this feature eliminates the need for customers to travel back and forth to pick up products. As a result, the IKEA Place app has significantly enhanced the retailer’s competitiveness in the market.

home furnishing and decor

Wayfair — Like IKEA, Wayfair also has emerged as a front-runner in the field of AR-based furniture shopping apps. Customers constantly seek a seamless AR experience that can be extended to multiple products using AR technology. AR’s infinite capabilities have resulted in a higher degree of realism by adhering to the principles of the real world. According to Steven Conine, co-founder of Wayfair, AR is set to be the future of every American household since try-before-you-buy has gone digital. In essence, Wayfair’s AR app has transformed the retail experience into an elevated one.

Houzz — This is a fantastic AR app for the furniture and home industry, providing innovative ideas to customers. By using AR technology to visualize products, Houzz estimates that customers are 11 times more likely to make a purchase. This makes Houzz AR a powerful tool for driving sales. Additionally, the app’s curated approach has been especially helpful to millennial consumers looking to buy furniture.

Lifestyle

Amazon — Amazon, one of the world’s most popular eCommerce platforms, has embraced AR technology by launching a new feature for smartphones called Amazon AR View. This feature enables customers to overlay virtual products onto their actual surroundings using their smartphone cameras. This feature is available to both iPhone and Android users via the Amazon smartphone app. Amazon’s adoption of AR technology in its eCommerce platform is a sign that the technology is becoming increasingly mainstream, suggesting that customers will expect AR to be a standard feature in their overall eCommerce experience.

Break Down of the Expenses Involved in Building an AR-based Retail App

Augmented Reality (AR) technology is increasingly being recognized as a valuable tool for enhancing the retail customer experience. However, the development of an AR-based retail app can be a complex and costly undertaking. Developing an AR-powered e-commerce app incurs varying costs, contingent upon factors such as app complexity, features and functionalities, targeted platform(s), development team location, and other variables. To provide a breakdown of the expenses involved, we will examine the key cost components of building an AR-based retail app.

Development costs

Development cost is the most substantial expenditure for building an AR-based retail app. These costs differ based on the app’s intricacy, the features needed, and the proficiency of the development team. Expertise in AR technology and programming languages such as C++, Java, and Swift is vital for the development team for creating a user-friendly, efficient and engaging app.

Design costs

Design cost is also a vital consideration when it comes to developing an AR-based retail app. The user interface should be visually alluring and intuitive, demanding the expertise of a skilled designer. The design costing depends on the experience of the designer and the complexities of the app design.

Content creation

The AR-based retail app will involve high-quality animations, 3D models, and textures for producing an immersive experience for the user. The complexity and amount of the content required decides the content creation cost. Furthermore, the app might necessitate the integration of product catalogs, adding to the content creation costs.

Hardware costs

They are another vital cost to consider. The app will require high-end devices along with innovative features to run efficiently. The hardware cost will depend on the type and number of devices required to support the app.

Maintenance and Support Cost

Maintenance and support is highly required after the app is developed and launched. The maintenance cost includes bug fixing, software updates and security updates while support costs consider resolving customer queries along with providing customer support.

Finally, it’s the marketing and advertising strategy on which the triumph of the AR-based retail app will depend. The marketing and advertising cost will depend on the target audience and the channels used to grasp them. Traditional advertising methods such as billboards and print media and social media marketing are among the options available.

Incorporate Augmented Reality into Your Retail Business with Us

Customer gladness is critical in today’s enormously competitive economy. It’s not enough to simply offer a great product or service; businesses must provide an immersive and engaging shopping experience to stand out from the crowd. Businesses may elevate their customer experience by deploying consumer-focused solutions like AR.

At Softqube Technologies, we focus in AR development practices and can aid you develop reliable AR-based solutions for your business. Our skilled team of developers will monitor you through the entire process, confirming that you have a strong understanding of what to expect. With us by your side, you can boost your marketing campaigns and bring your products to life with the power of augmented reality.

So, if you want to improve your customers’ shopping experience and boost your business’s bottom line, don’t hesitate to contact us. Let’s work together to create innovative solutions that will take your business to new heights!

FAQs

Q1. How can businesses leverage AR to enhance the shopping experience for their customers?

A1. The integration of augmented reality in e-commerce allows businesses to offer virtual product trials to customers. This immersive experience enables customers to interact with products before purchasing them, providing them with more informed and confident buying decisions.

Q2. What are the most operative uses of augmented reality in the e-commerce business?

A2. Augmented reality has proven to be highly advantageous for e-commerce businesses, largely in terms of augmenting customer engagement and experience. AR also plays a significant role in improving conversion rates and reducing the number of order cancellations and returns.

Q3. What qualities set AR and VR apart?

A3. AR superimposes digital content onto physical objects, while VR immerses users in a virtual world. AR provides additional information and enhances learning experiences, while VR is used for training simulations, immersive gaming, and storytelling. AR is more accessible as it only requires a smartphone, while VR requires special headsets. Both technologies have made significant progress and have untapped potential.

Revolutionizing Guest Experiences with AI/ML in the Hotel Industry

Introduction

AI has impacted various industries worldwide and is continuously evolving in the customer-focused era. It is a vital part of technology advancements, from smartphones to business software. Companies of all sizes are aware of the significance of adopting new tech solutions to enhance their progress and tackle present challenges and opportunities. The hospitality industry is embracing AI-driven innovations to revolutionize its processes, services, and facilities.

A survey done by the Economic times found rising growth at the global hospitality market in 2020 despite the pandemic situation. Between 2000 and 2021, the hotel and tourism sector received a cumulative FDI inflow of US $15.89 bn. The key motivator for such constant evolution was the deep integration of technology that enabled acceleration and streamlining of the processes thereby making the work execution seamless and simple. AI and ML especially helped in providing customers with personalized services, offered virtual assistance, and analyzed user reviews to improvise and personalize guest experiences.

The hotel industry is constantly evolving and the incorporation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the latest technological revolution that is driving growth and revenue. With the help of AI-powered robotics, hotels are able to transform their processes, services and facilities to provide satisfying customer service. This blog will delve into the ways AI is being used in the hospitality industry and the impact it has on the industry’s overall growth.

What Impact AI/ML Has Created So Far in the Hotel Industry?

What-Impact-AIML-Has-Created-So-Far-in-the-Hotel-Industry

The idea of Making Intelligent Hotels

The idea of making hotels intelligent with AI-powered care and service is gaining popularity among modern hospitality leaders. Essential elements that make hotels intelligent include concierge robots, digital assistance, voice-activated services, travel experience enhancers, and automatic data processing (machine learning). These AI-enabled technologies not only reduce human involvement but also improve the way guest service is delivered, with the goal of meeting customer satisfaction.

AI Entering Hotel Industry

The use of AI in the hotel industry is becoming more prevalent with the integration of voice-activated assistants like Siri and Alexa. These systems use machine learning to gather information about customers and provide personalized experiences. This data can be used to improve customer service, from understanding their preferences and choices to tracking their journey patterns and hotel ratings.

Exquisite Customer Services

The hotel industry is increasingly utilizing AI technology, such as voice-activated assistants and robot concierges, to improve customer service and gather insight on customer preferences. Companies like Hilton Worldwide Hotel have implemented AI-powered concierge robots, like Connie, to assist guests and make real-time recommendations. These robots use AI platforms like IBM’s Watson and travel databases to learn from customer interactions and improve their responses.

Outstanding Service With Mobile Apps

Guests of hotels have come to expect control and flexibility when it comes to their stay. Many hotels offer special perks such as mobile apps that allow guests to control various aspects of their stay, such as room temperature and lighting, and order drinks and meals. AI-driven chatbots play a key role in this customer service, allowing guests to interact with the hotel through the app and perform tasks such as ordering meals and drinks, scheduling reservations, and planning itineraries. These virtual interactions via the mobile app allow chatbots to serve as service representatives, bypassing the need for hotel staff.

Personalization in Services Through the Itinerary

Modern travelers want a combination of personalized service and high service standards when they are on the go. However, managing a hotel can be difficult due to the large amounts of data about guests and staff, which can lead to challenges in providing a seamless customer experience. One solution to this problem is to provide guests with intelligent travel phones. These phones, which are available in the guest room, offer features such as GPS, games and entertainment, a hotel app powered by AI, access to unlimited data and international calls, a handy guide to city attractions, promotional offers, and the ability to book return travel and quickly contact hotel service assistants.

Customer Care

Hotels are using AI to gather more knowledge about their customers in order to improve the guest experience. By analyzing data on customer purchases, travel choices, location preferences, and more, AI can offer personalized recommendations and options to guests. From booking a room to planning a journey, AI can assist guests with a variety of tasks, such as fast online assistance, saving user preferences, and making personalized recommendations. This is made possible through the use of big data and machine learning, which helps hotels understand and address the individual needs of their customers.

How AI/ML Creates a Promising Future To Improve the Guest Experiences In Years To Come?

Benefits of AI and ML for Hospitality - Softqube

Improving Hotel Guest Experience

The rise of AI has led to a rapid evolution of devices in terms of features and functionality. The breakthrough technology innovations in artificial intelligence, robotics, and IoT are becoming increasingly common in hotels and resorts, driving competitive advantage and changing the way properties and guests interact. One of the main focuses for most hotels is mobile and voice-activated assistants, which offer guests an easy way to interact with the hotel. Guests can control room functions like TV, lighting, music and temperature with voice commands, and make requests to hotel staff and access room service.

One of the key features that makes AI-enabled systems “smart” is their ability to learn and improve through natural language understanding and machine learning. The system can analyze data from past interactions with guests and continuously improve its responses and predictive capabilities. Voice-activated speaker systems and text-based personal assistants have the potential to engage in meaningful conversations and make optimal recommendations, shortening guest wait times and increasing overall satisfaction.

According to research, AI-enabled response technology can handle an average of 70% of guest requests in hotels where the systems have been implemented, resulting in time and cost savings, and enhancing guest relationships. AI has been shown to reduce the need for human assistance, freeing up staff from routine tasks. Several leading hotel groups have reported that their AI-enabled concierge services have reduced calls to the human concierge desk by 35% or more. Although still in its infancy, AI has more than proven its value in the context of hotel guest services, making it a strong business case for investment in AI technologies.

Forecasting and Patterns of Occupancy

The occupancy rate in the hospitality industry is largely affected by seasons and holidays. Hotel operators use demand forecasting to increase profits. AI can gather information from multiple sources and predict events that could impact occupancy rate and prices.

With access to this information, hoteliers can adjust pricing to be more competitive, create targeted promotional campaigns, and make better strategic decisions. AI enables the industry to analyze customer flow and occupancy patterns, combine this information with business data, and determine the most effective strategies to attract more guests and boost sales.

For instance, hotel managers can utilize AI to distinguish the number of guests from local areas versus other regions or countries. AI will assist them in collecting and analyzing crucial information about guests, including their travel habits and demographic traits, to provide a personalized and memorable experience and foster customer loyalty, setting the hotel apart from competitors.

Fulfilling Guest Expectations

Hotels and resorts have always aimed to handle guest requests in a timely and satisfactory manner. This is because their reputation is heavily dependent on the level of customer service they provide. Their abilities in this area are considered key performance metrics for success.

Today, the challenge is that guests have much higher expectations. The concept of a hotel guest experience has changed in recent years due to demographic and technological shifts. Guests now expect a seamless and frictionless experience throughout their stay, with fast responses to inquiries and personal attention from staff. With the rise of technology-enabled access to information and services in many aspects of life, guests expect this luxury to extend to their hotel experience.

In the future, hotels are likely to be facilitated by a combination of human and machine efforts. Artificial intelligence has the potential to reduce latency between guest requests and hotel response time, enhance the in-room guest experience, and customize services and activities for individual guests. IoT devices can also help update the room with personalized settings and predict which services and activities will be of interest to guests. All of these elements work together to meet and exceed the wave of rising guest expectations.

Reinforcing Guest Personalization

Guest personalization is a top priority for hotels today as they strive to meet the increasing expectations of their guests and maintain a competitive edge. It is quickly becoming a minimum requirement for hotels to remain in the industry. In recent years, hotels have shifted their focus from physical upgrades such as upgraded guest rooms and technology-enabled amenities to providing guests with personalized stay experiences.

For many hotels and resorts, success will depend on their ability to gain a deep understanding of their guests on an individual basis and use that knowledge to enhance the guest experience. A majority of hoteliers believe that targeted personalization, which involves presenting guests with relevant messages, offers, and services at the right time, is an effective way to improve guest satisfaction and loyalty.

Room customization is a crucial aspect of guest personalization. Artificial intelligence can be used to make a guest’s stay more personalized, right down to their preferred lighting and temperature control settings, music playlists, and streaming content. The more frequently a guest stays at a hotel, the more the hotel will learn about them and enhance their guest experience through personalization. In the future, hotels should aim to predict guest wants and needs and proactively address them even before the guest’s arrival.

Empowering Guest Journeys

The guest journey is a record of all interactions and transactions between the hotel and a guest from the start of their stay until they check out. Hotel operators are focusing on mapping and analyzing the guest journey to identify areas for improvement and provide a better experience for guests. The guest journey can start before the guest even sets foot in the hotel, from the research and booking process, and can continue even after the guest leaves the property.

The mapping of the guest journey helps hotel operators identify patterns and shortcomings in the guest experience. However, this exercise can be challenging. With the increasing use of machine learning in the hospitality industry, it is likely to play a crucial role in monitoring the different elements of the guest journey, assessing performance, and flagging areas for improvement. AI technology can also resolve issues and suggest new innovations to improve guest satisfaction. According to a survey, 82% of hoteliers believe AI technology will generate actionable insights for improving business processes and enhancing the guest experience.

The use of messaging apps has been a focus of the hospitality industry, with the goal of building guest loyalty, increasing engagement, and enhancing the overall guest experience. Some hotels send an invitation to their messaging app to guests after they book their stay. On an opt-in basis, guests can receive pre-stay notifications, explore neighborhood guides, set preferences, and communicate with the social care team. The evolution of hotel messaging and the extent to which messaging apps will incorporate artificial intelligence is a topic of interest. It is clear that the conversation between hotels and guests will shift from a request-based one to a two-way dialogue, largely enabled by artificial intelligence.

Complete Support to the Hotel Staff

The migration from humans to machines in the hotel industry is an important issue for hoteliers to consider. They need to assess how this migration will affect existing jobs and if humans and machines can work together for mutual benefits for hotel staff and guests. A majority of hoteliers agree that artificial intelligence (AI) improves employee satisfaction, as it allows employees to focus on higher-value tasks by handling mundane tasks like answering frequently asked questions.

At a major hotel group, AI has reduced the workload of customer support reps and improved the guest experience. The hotel group was struggling to keep up with the volume of support tickets and needed to improve response times. They implemented AI-enabled virtual assistants with natural language integration and self-learning capabilities. The technology integrated with the hotel’s case management tools and improved over time with each interaction. As a result, call resolution times have decreased and the human support personnel are now able to focus on higher-value tasks.

Technology adoption requires a culture change within the organization. Employees need to understand the benefits of AI and overcome any fears they have about job security. AI needs to be part of the overall business strategy and employees need to be included in the strategy to see how they can work together with the technology for mutual benefit. By doing so, employees can fit into higher-level roles and improve the guest experience, as well as their own employee experience.

Dynamic Pricing

In the past, hotels had a standard approach to offering suite upgrades. The revenue manager would set a fixed price for the upgrade, which would be communicated to the front desk and offered to every guest who walked through the door. The price was not adjusted based on guest preferences or market conditions, and the offer was sometimes sent through email without much consideration.

Today, ML-powered hotel upselling uses advanced algorithms to determine the most appropriate pricing based on various factors such as the booked rate, room type, current rates, guest demand, and room availability. The system continues to learn from guest interactions and improve its decision-making abilities with each interaction.

The hospitality industry can harness the power of AI to optimize operations and increase customer retention. AI can perform tasks typically done by human staff effortlessly and efficiently, leading to various benefits for the industry. These benefits include:

  • Optimal room rates: AI can help set room rates based on occupancy levels, market trends, and algorithms to attract a target group of customers.
  • Dynamic pricing: The technology can adjust pricing in real-time, taking into account seasonal changes and market conditions, to maximize profits.
  • Real-time updates: AI can update rates across multiple platforms in real-time, keeping up with market demands.
  • Performance comparison: AI can compare the performance and ratings of a hotel to others in the local community, helping hotel managers make informed decisions.

With AI integrated into operational systems, hotel managers have the ability to track market trends, anticipate local events, and respond accordingly. This not only maximizes profits by automating tasks but also reduces the need for human effort and minimizes errors.

As the hotel industry continues to recover, it’s crucial for hoteliers to take advantage of the increasing demand by offering relevant and personalized offers to guests. By utilizing ML technology, hotels can ensure that their upselling efforts are more effective and result in a better guest experience.

Hotel Booking App - Softqube

Conversational Marketing

The hospitality sector has embraced the use of AI and automation technologies, aiming to improve guest experience. AI-powered chatbots, functioning as virtual assistants, offer quick and customized assistance to travelers’ inquiries. These chatbots optimize the direct booking process, are always available for customer queries, and provide personalized check-ins/outs and upgrades.

Through conversational marketing, hotels can identify upselling opportunities and engage with customers in a more personalized manner. As an example, hotel groups may utilized any renowned software development company’s AI solution to reach 100% chat automation and achieved a considerable customer satisfaction score.

AI also goes a step further by making recommendations to guests, thereby increasing direct sales by automating functions such as booking, handling FAQs, query support, and payment processing. This advanced technology and focus on customer experience will give hospitality businesses a competitive edge and improve customer loyalty.

Virtual Concierges (Chatbots)

Virtual concierges powered by AI technology have become the preferred mode of communication for both travelers and hoteliers. They not only offer comfort to guests, but also drive revenue for hotels. A study shows that in 2022, about 85% of customers prefer to ask their queries through real-time chatbots, as they are addressed immediately without the need to wait for customer support.

While existing hospitality chatbots fulfill some aspects of digital concierge service, AI-powered solutions offer a more personalized experience for guests while reducing the efforts of staff. Integrating with popular communication channels frees up hotel staff to focus on complex requests, leading to an elevated guest experience. The hospitality industry can leverage virtual concierges to:

  • Create a seamless guest experience that drives sales and loyalty
  • Handle time-consuming tasks and improve employee satisfaction
  • Respond faster to inquiries with accurate service
  • Communicate in over 100 languages through automated translations
  • Open up communication channels, such as social media and instant messaging (WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, WeChat, Google My Business, SMS), to generate additional revenue streams
  • Highlight local attractions and businesses

For instance, when guests visit a hotel’s website with inquiries, virtual chatbots attend to their questions and respond promptly. With their concerns satisfactorily resolved, customers are more likely to take advantage of the hotel’s upselling offers. AI-driven virtual concierges provide guests with an efficient and high-end user experience, allowing them to access information and services whenever they desire.

Guest Data Analysis

The rise of Alexa and Siri has paved the way for the widespread adoption of voice-activated services. In order to provide guests with a comfortable and personalized experience, hotels are incorporating voice automation into their offerings, allowing guests to control room amenities using only their voice.

With the advancements in technology, hotels can utilize conversational AI in the form of voicebots that can process incoming voice messages from popular social media and messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. These advanced Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems can also answer guest queries through natural-sounding voice notes, providing a more intuitive and user-friendly experience.

Voice-activated services rely solely on Artificial Intelligence to recognize speech and respond appropriately, providing a personalized experience for guests. This smart feature allows guests to complete a range of tasks, such as requesting room service, making reservations at the hotel restaurant, accessing tourist information, ordering specific items, and even booking excursions.

For example, if a guest wants to adjust the room’s temperature, they simply need to say “turn up the temperature” to the voice-controlled smart hubs in the hotel. Voice technology can also be used for entertainment purposes, with devices programmed in advance with the guest’s name to further enhance their personalized experience. In-room voice-activated services also allow guests to interact in their native language, removing any language barriers.

Robots

The integration of Artificial Intelligence in hospitality management through robotics has a bright future in the industry. Service robots equipped with AI have the ability to carry out tasks, both simple and complex, with greater accuracy and consistency. The hotel segment has significantly contributed to the growth of the hospitality robots market, which was valued at $295.3 million in 2020 and is estimated to reach $3,081 million by 2030.

The main objective of robots in the hospitality industry is to improve and enhance the guest experience. This can be achieved by performing activities such as greeting guests, guiding them to their rooms, delivering snacks and orders to their rooms without affecting availability, and cleaning and disinfecting facilities.

Current advancements in robot technologies have resulted in a higher level of intelligence and capability to process holistic thinking, enabling better customer engagement in an intuitive and natural manner. Staying updated with the latest trends in Artificial Intelligence will help hotel professionals better understand their customers’ needs and provide them with innovative and exceptional experiences.

Predict Utility Usage

Hotels looking to improve revenue and save energy, water, and waste should focus on utilizing AI-powered tools. A study shows that on average, US hotels spend 6% of operating costs on utility bills. These expenses can be reduced through the implementation of AI energy management, which goes beyond energy-saving lighting systems and predicts maintenance needs for equipment.

This modern and smart management solution, supported by IoT devices, provides real-time data on energy usage, monitoring factors like temperature, air pressure, and humidity, and adjusts the HVAC accordingly. Hoteliers can use AI to better understand their energy consumption and reach efficiency goals while creating a more sustainable environment.

Make Actionable Reviews

Acquiring new customers is five times more expensive than retaining existing ones, so hoteliers are embracing AI-powered response systems to improve guest satisfaction. The AI system analyzes qualitative feedback data, providing insights and information from vast amounts of text.

Hoteliers can automate review management with AI, collecting, storing, and analyzing reviews from multiple sources, freeing up staff to focus on other tasks and avoiding additional pressure on employees. Sentiment analysis highlights positive and negative comments, enabling hoteliers to respond to guest requests in an appropriate tone, with the right information, at the right time.

AI-powered review systems enable hotel staff to quickly and easily resolve customer issues, boosting both business and guest experience. With AI technology constantly advancing, hotels are leveraging AI to improve the guest experience and respond to customer needs effectively.

Contactless-Procedures

Contactless Procedures

In the wake of the pandemic, contactless technology has gained prominence in the hospitality sector. A survey reveals that 70% of millennial travelers prefer a hotel experience with minimal physical contact. AI-powered contactless technology offers the following solutions:

  • Virtual Concierge service
  • Automated check-in/check-out
  • Voice-activated room service
  • Automated spa booking assistance
  • Contactless digital payments
  • Robotic service

Designed for customers seeking frictionless service, AI-integrated hospitality solutions automate various aspects of hotel operations, allowing for a personalized guest experience and timely satisfaction of guest needs. Automated keyless check-in/express check-out is increasingly popular for its convenience, and AI can reduce staffing, documentation, and time costs for the hotel management.

The hospitality industry is embracing AI to meet the growing demand for contactless technology, and new innovations such as facial recognition, cashless payments, and IoT are on the horizon. AI-powered contactless technology will drive the next generation of on-demand hospitality, offering an automated guest experience while increasing hotel revenue.

Smart Hiring Scenarios

The use of AI in the hospitality industry goes beyond improving customer experience and automating operations. It also enables organizations to modernize their recruitment process by using AI-powered tools. According to a report by McKinsey’s Global Institute, it’s estimated that 70% of companies will adopt AI by 2030.

Integrating AI with recruitment will streamline the application process by automatically screening resumes, providing real-time feedback, and eliminating biases. AI can assess applicants’ psychological traits, cognitive skills, personality, and communication, helping recruiters to select the best fit for a particular position.

Moreover, AI can also enhance employee training by providing mobile or web-based learning, as well as assessments to gauge their performance. This will save time for both recruiters and candidates and help overcome the challenges and expenses of hiring top talent.

AI App for Hospitality Business - Softqube

Final Take Away

AI is rapidly transforming the hotel industry, improving guest experience and reducing the need for human assistance. AI is changing hotel messaging, leading to a two-way conversation with guests, enhancing the in-room experience, enabling personalization, and identifying and resolving issues to increase guest satisfaction and loyalty. AI is already changing the travel lifecycle and will continue to shape the future of the hotel guest experience in the coming years.

In conclusion, the advent of Artificial Intelligence in the hospitality industry has marked the beginning of a new era. With its ability to automate back-office functions, improve customer experience and streamline the recruitment process, AI has proven to be a game-changer for the hospitality industry. It not only simplifies the day-to-day operations of hotels, but also helps them to keep pace with the ever-evolving customer needs and preferences. So, don’t be left behind, embrace the power of AI and take your hotel to new heights of success! Whether you’re a seasoned hotelier or a new entrant, the future is waiting, and it’s ready to be shaped by you.

Inside the Metaverse, Architects view the opportunity in the Virtual World

Let us all admit that we are curious about the Metaverse and the future it offers for pursuing the buzz created after Mark Zuckerberg publicized it in October’21. But did you think about how the Metaverse’s distinct aspects are penetrating the field of design and architecture? Metaverse is a virtual online world that integrates 3D holographic avatars, virtual reality, augmented reality, and other types of communications. The users in the Metaverse stay in the digital realm and engage with each other using virtual reality technologies and avatars. This technology enables people to live in the parallel liver while adopting unique digitalized avatars.

Everything you need to know regarding Metaverse Architecture

The digital economy is at its peak

The world economy is substantially transitioning from the physical world to the virtual one. Since the world epidemic, the merger of both the worlds has significantly grown. Various real retail shops have shut while fashion labels like Balenciaga have planned to display their present collection through a video game. Commercial property owners are under pressure because tenants reduce or quit their operations, and video conferencing such as Zoom has been growing in popularity. The total working environment has changed because of the pandemic, be it the operation of the organizations or e-commerce. All is changed. In the crypto, fashion, and gaming industry Metaverse has been laying its stepping stones. Post this, in the architecture world, Metaverse is trying to make its mark.

Metaverse architects serve as a support system between both the real and digital worlds

Architects have been responsible for designing theaters, malls, buildings, etc., for centuries. The team understands the details of the projects that they are working on. With their combined efforts, fruitful results are delivered to the end-users. You may be wondering, in the Metaverse, how this coordination is possible. With digital twins in the Architectural Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry, architects can act as the bridge between both worlds. With the use of simulations in the “test drive” of unassembled buildings, architects can create virtual copies of the events of the real world.

We cannot deny that architects significantly contribute to the fulfillment of the imaginative projects of the Metaverse. In the Metaverse, people need places, so designers and architects are required to create or enhance these spaces. However, we consider architects will probably change with this new world’s expansion. In the Metaverse, architects must integrate professional knowledge in various fields, including game design, character design, content design, and user interface, and also need to prepare the 3D modeling. A digital twin imitates the building, which narrates a story using data from the linked sensors all over its life cycle.

A comprehensive range of programmers and game designers might become architectural design teams. In the process of this innovative age of architectural design, more people will be participating in the process. Additionally, architectural education will require teaching a combination of 3D technology and digital media to the new phase of architects. This will shift outside the history of materials, construction techniques, and architecture. Moreover, the Metaverse may be an innovative frontier in architectural conservation. Metaverse can act as a platform whereby we preserve buildings inside the digital reality for future generations. With apps such as photogrammetry and point clouds, it is quite possible to hold digital clones and scan data in the Metaverse. You must use your creative ability to build experiences and interactions in the virtual world.

What is the importance of social responsibility in this virtual world?

Architects are excellent listeners as well as speakers. They start by carefully listening to understand what our communities and customers want. Not only do they try to satisfy the customers, but they also lay a huge emphasis on the social impact their work creates in serving the total community better. We find the architects where the culture emerges as well as expresses itself. It focuses on holding a unique cultural backdrop before the conceptual design, which includes lifestyles, location memories, and languages. On the Metaverse, there do not exist any geographical restrictions. The users of the metaverse world come from diverse cultural and social backgrounds. In this way, one can develop vernacular metaverses having variable cultures.

Metamodernism architecture

The architecture of Metamodernism is an architectural movement and philosophy built on state-of-the-art technology of virtual architectural design in various metaverses. The architecture of Metamodernism is, most importantly, an architectural trend. It is a movement that is devoted to distributing their expressions all over many metaverses with particular intriguing ties to the Decentraland, like holding a PolkaWorld event. Yen and Charlie Sun are the architects who are at the forefront of the movement of Architecture. The founder of the Meta Live Studio, Charlie Sun, has been a designer and an architect for 10 years. Yen is another metaverse architect who started her journey in the year 2019. She has been working for famous artists such as The Shanghai Gallery and ArtGee.

Meta city

With the increasing structures, events, and users, the team is pretty confident regarding the future of Decentraland. As urban planners and experienced architects, they have made a simulation of the metropolis of Metaverse for the upcoming few years.

Metarchitect Studio

The studio of the metaverse architecture uses the idea of a floating digital unit Genesis voxel that develops innovative architecture on the go. This is a representation of the Metaverse spirits, a manifesto for Metarchitects, and a gallery of the language of the Metaverse architecture where you can explore the different architectural forms of the Metaverse.

Vault Hill Office

A Vault Hill Office is the Metaverse inside a Metaverse. You can think of it as the experimental hub for the Decentraland metaverse. This idea aims at combining real-life design with the function by combining the real-life design with the function with the incorporation of conventional architecture design into the Metaverse. This consists of three levels. At first, we have a public atrium. Next, there is a private space, and last, is the rooftop having a mesmerizing view of the surroundings.

The fever of NFT and the Design Profession’s future

If you were offered a virtual reality building, would you purchase that? Nothing can be entered into the real world but a video or a picture you may see. Basically, this is what is backed when architecture enters the realm of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) that have now taken over the world.

Since 2013, NFTs have been around, but suddenly their popularity has skyrocketed or captured the mainstream media’s attention. Because of the disruption, novelty, and excitement over digital transactions, the bidders are interested in possessing a piece of virtual uniqueness. NFTs have been designed to deliver you something unique, the ownership of the work that is valued at a cost that you are paying for it through blockchain. It has been viewed as the upcoming step in collecting fine art and an innovative frontier in terms of what we consider art, how we present it, and how we value it.

A digital file might be copied the number of times you wish, but there is always one unique. It is very similar to how Mona Lisa is represented at the Louvre, the sole picture that has been globally copied. The success of NFTs has been because of technological advancements that have created an environment where goods can be acquired. To construct a digital replica of the real world is similar to founding an alternative universe for the architects- an unexplored area of possibilities having no limits. In the Metaverse, the great unfathomed requirement for material can surge in the field of digital architecture for developing virtual venues like museums, conference rooms, stadiums, or even a total city.

The Metaverse’s Designers

A vital question that comes to mind is whether the virtual world is similar to the physical one. The good design of today is aesthetically pleasing to one’s eye, simple to use, intuitive, and, it is an absolutely immersive experience. Individual involvement while pursuing an objective in the Metaverse might be very vital than the speed by which it reaches its objectives in the real world. It is quite desirable to visit the marketplace instead of accessing the online markets. You can buy anything anytime, or a person might wish to visit friends instead of meeting them via Zoom sessions. Anyone having a wild and creative imagination can readily view the Metaverse’s creation. But as the designers of the real world, what do the real world’s architects bring to the table?

Socio-cultural integration

Though there are no physical limits in the world of the Metaverse, some sociological problems might persist. In the virtual world, to shape a healthy society, designers have to understand in the actual world how societies run, and their understanding of the cultural and social issues is unparalleled. As a result, the architect’s job is to guarantee that the Metaverse is a vernacular and inclusive environment.

Psychology and Environment

We all are aware of the truth that our surroundings influence our emotions. Spaces can make us feel energized, depressed, sad, and joyful, and an excellent design is known to have purpose and emotion. The Metaverse will require designers who have a better understanding of this which is impossible without the architects. The architects are quite curious as well as understanding listeners. They comprehend community desires and needs and human psychology, then apply this knowledge to a constructed environment.

The Metaverse vs. Existing architecture

There are differences between authentic architecture and a metaverse. The most prominent difference is the features of the space itself. Whether you interact with a space or not, it does exist in the natural environment. However, in a virtual environment, every place has a story or a reason. Additionally, no real-life restrictions or rules like physical laws, climatic issues, structural stability, or gravity will bring something to the metauniverse. So, the architects have the freedom to overcome the prevailing conditions and create authentic pieces of art and exceptional environments.

On the other hand, in the metaverse architecture, not every five senses are included. Thus, the atmosphere is delivered with limited resources, and audio and visual effects are emphasized more. In the prevailing architecture, before the constructions, visualizations are developed for delivering the details and atmosphere of the space to the audience. The whole environment is built in the Metaverse with a similar amount of effort and time spent solely on visualization.

Companies designing in the virtual world

Architects from Decentraland

The blockchain of the virtual reality world is referred to as Decentraland Architects, which was founded in March 2021. The customers provide architecture and 3D design to develop and build professional virtual real estate. The users can use Mana, the in-game cryptocurrency, to purchase plots of land and parcels and spend their time in an immersive environment.

ILLUSORR

A design-oriented metaverse that merges the virtual and physical worlds to develop original experiences and environments is referred to as ILLUSORR. It focuses on redefining the virtual reality business once fragmented as an all-in-one platform that delivers individuals, creatives, and corporations with a totally immersive metaverse experience.

Architect Zaha Hadid

Recently, Zaha Hadid architects have collaborated with PUBG to create a virtual environment whereby worldwide players can experience an interactive environment. This is a realm where around 100 individuals in a technically and aesthetically rich battleground defeat other players.

Wrapping up

After considering everything, we view our future home metaverse as mostly determined by how efficiently the places have been constructed. As a result of which, architects will be at the frontline of Metaverse by providing highly desired three-dimensional attributes to millions of users. In spite of being computerized, the buildings of the Metaverse have been designed with a similar inspiration as conventional architecture. As the architectural environment and world evolve around us, more architects and designers will pursue possibilities in building digital assets and virtual landscapes with the same forethought, vision, and passion that we view in the designs surrounding us on the planet.

10 Lucrative Metaverse Opportunities That Can Help Your Business

Metaverse is a smooth and logical integration of our digital and natural lives combined in a virtual, single society where you can work, rest, play, interact and transact. Though it is still in a developing stage, with no one around competing as such, businesses are likely to benefit from the opportunities it provides.

It is critical to note that there is not just one virtual world. Many other worlds are developing to let you expand and deepen your social connections digitally. This is accomplished by involving a 3-dimensional immersive layer in the web that will lead to the development of more natural and realistic experiences. You might be interested to learn that Metaverse possesses the potential to offer you the opportunity to easily and conveniently access vital services, commodities as well as experiences in the comfort of your office or home.

This metaverse world will open up an array of opportunities for B2B or business-to-business transactions. Keep reading this article to learn more about how your business can benefit from the opportunities that Metaverse offers to your industry.

The Metaverse for your business

The Metaverse for your business!

The Metaverse for business stands for the construction and deployment of 3D environments for businesses, like those used mostly for recruiting, staff training, social events, or customer and client interactions. Talking of an enterprise metaverse, it can be easily adopted and controlled by organizations for meeting their requirements. This means they can effectively control their Metaverse like they run their own website. As per research, employees are keen to take advantage of all the benefits offered by Metaverse.

The covid-19 pandemic has left its effect on the global civilization that has, in turn, contributed to a significant shift in the mood of employees towards the world of Metaverse. It has permanently imposed a threat on the 9-5 onsite employment module. While during this phase, the work from home module has been adopted, even after the end of the pandemic, employees are not ready to return to work at the office or onsite. Talking of Metaverse, it plays an important part here in keeping the workers interested while at the same time assisting in solving the productivity challenges linked with the concept of remote hiring, like the exhaustion of video conferencing

The Role of AR and VR

The Role of AR and VR

With Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) devices, you can establish an interactive online ecosystem for the specialized training courses, for delivery of virtual assessments and obstacles that the participants need to traverse to pass this kind of training program. Most essentially, this kind of training program can be offered in any industry along with the AI avatar bots like the virtual patients or consumers employed as a part of an engaging and big learning experience.

Various 3D ecosystems can be developed to meet the enterprises’ unique demands, from training to development to hosting events online. Businesses can host and participate in the meetings, establish some breakout sections, carry on with team development sessions, effectively attend some corporate partnership calls, and construct and advertise webinars using the 3D event platforms.

As of the Metaverse, you can use it for hosting or even linking to any kind of online photos, materials, videos, or PDFs the same way as the websites available on the internet. Now, within the Metaverse, the avatars act just like a personal identity in an environment whereby contacting others is possible, along with the ergonomics of the environment resembling the location or workplace where the event is happening or is likely to happen. In short, the Metaverse can interact with and modify ordinary and real working practices.

Top 10 Profitable Metaverse Opportunities

The Metaverse is rightly referred to as an enticing virtual world whereby individuals can purchase goods, play, or even get connected to friends and family. It is a combination of augmented and virtual reality and gives access to interactive video. It won’t be inaccurate to state that the Metaverse is going to dramatically alter how you interact with and use technology, despite the fact that it is currently a difficult concept that necessitates a good description.

While few businesses like Nike, Disney, and Gucci have joined this world already, others are still in a debate to estimate whether or not being a participant in this world will be a better one. Here are some of the most advantageous metaverse opportunities.

Events taking place virtually in Metaverse

1. Events taking place virtually in Metaverse

A common thing that has seen huge growing popularity in the last few years is virtual events. The use of immersive metaverse experiences and virtual planning of events may help build the events likely to make the attendees feel as if they are present in the event in real.

Metaverse possesses everything that can give you a real-time experience. When talking about virtual events, especially famous ones such as Fortnite, you can get the actual feel of a concert. Popular artists such as Ariana Grande and Travis Scott have performed in Fortnite concerts that were held virtually. The accessibility of Metaverse to create virtual event commercial perspective is the prime benefit. And do you know how? You can grab your ticket to one of these concerts without even bothering about your primary locations. In this manner, businesses can make a profit since they can gain access to a large audience owing to this kind of flexibility.

2. The benefits of immersive learning adventures

Immersive learning scopes with Metaverse will boost medical education, higher education, and military applications alongside many other sectors. Corporations do not need to build any kind of infrastructure to offer an immersive learning experience as it is already in existence in Metaverse. Digital headgear and VR rooms offer several layers of digital information about the real world and are 2 instances of the metaverse usage in the sphere of education.

Learning with the help of virtual reality is likely to assist the students in engaging with various experiences and ideologies. At the same time, the Metaverse can also aid in the discovery of different issues alongside facilitating curricular modifications.

The contribution of Metaverse in the field of Fashion

3. The contribution of Metaverse in the field of Fashion

The fashion or the retail industry is yet another vast area for conducting tests on the commercial potential of Metaverse. The virtual shopping experiences that are based on Metaverse can highly benefit retail businesses. In addition, it can also be a good place where businesses can introduce customers to new items. So are you thinking about visiting a fashion boutique in Metaverse? Go ahead as a digital avatar. You may pursue the shops and items they have just as you can in reality.

You can also try out the dresses or items on your digital avatar to get an idea of how you might look wearing the apparel. This can be rightly referred to as the digital trial room. Further, the combination of retail business with Metaverse offers it a framework for growing complex and new goods.

4. Promoting brotherhood and cooperation among the employees

Businesses can use the Metaverse to offer augmented and virtual workplaces. Alongside, the Metaverse can even boost the activities meant for developing engagement among the employees in a workplace to strengthen their bond and connection. This, in turn, is likely to stimulate cooperation and fellow feeling.

The Metaverse can prove itself as a very productive platform for enhancing employee cooperation. For instance, Microsoft is a good example of engaging the Metaverse to modify workplaces. You will get to see that the Microsoft Mesh expands quickly into a virtual workplace scenario. Here, users can grab the advantage of all related Microsoft services from one location.

5. Grant in the Sales services of the Non-Fungible tokens

This is a very popular business concept of Metaverse. The buyers acquired the NFTs in the most prevalent format, while the most prominent creators successfully sold their outstanding creations in Metaverse at auctions. Artists could easily access a Metaverse gallery followed by selling their NFTs to the customers who need the 3D models of their distinctive creations.

6. Advertising

The use of VR or virtual reality for the purpose of advertising is an amazing concept. Since VR forms offer a very immersive experience, they will likely make the advertising even more compelling.

The photographic methods applied in digital cinematography, augmented reality, interactive programming, interface design, and Virtual Reality offer experiences.

The Billboards in the Metaverse Cryptovoxels are usually charged at the rate of 1 ETH per week. By adhering to these methods, individuals all around the globe may get together to produce different commercials. Companies might adhere to the use of blockchain technology to experiment with the advertising packages and rent out the billboards in Metaverse to provide faster and more effective results at a cost less than the existing methods.

7. Receiving education digitally or online

Online learning has gained popularity over time, especially with the covid-19 pandemic. Everyone seems interested and highly satisfied with this online education module, from schools to offices. Usage of technologies such as Augmented Reality in the Metaverse is now picking up pace in this field of education.

8. Virtual Travel Agency

Everyone loves traveling since it is the best idea to restore your feelings of happiness. With the present-day lifestyle and work pressure, many people cannot visit new places of their choice. Fortunately, Metaverse has no such bindings while the rest of the world is also aware of how happening the tourist business is. Candidates can set up a virtual tourism business where they can offer others some interesting travel experiences.

9. Advantages of Metaverse in the social media

The Metaverse technology can offer planning for the upcoming immersive social media platforms. You can find users connecting with several other participants in the social media-based metaverse platforms as digital avatars in various virtual locations. The primary objective of the Metaverse from Facebook is to offer amazing potential for growing social media platforms.

The very next step of social media development will be about real-life social engagements. Metaverse has everything needed today for building self-restrained virtual communities with the social media ecosystems. This social media metaverse lets the users have an opportunity to speak with their friends who are miles and miles away from them yet make you feel like you are in the same room.

Metaverse is trending in the Gaming Industry

10. Metaverse is trending in the Gaming Industry

The gaming Metaverse is now in use by computer gamers who play online games in a multiplayer war arena. Most metaverse games, like highly multiplayer online role-playing games, are mostly link- and team-based participants. Since the games stay completely permanent in the virtual environment instead of transiting via servers, which is indeed time-consuming, it lacks the features of real-time communication like leaderboards and voice chats.

The augmented reality applications linking the avatar of players in the same room are now becoming highly popular. Apps personalizing the virtual reality displays make use of the smartphone’s camera to offer the users a VR experience. Even though the Blockchain players have not clearly requested the help of Bitcoin Magazine to build and grow their blockchain networks, they have expanded communication methods by using the Metamask tool available with Ethereum. Now, users can use this app to buy NFTS without getting tied to any blockchain other than Ethereum.

Wrapping Up

The Metaverse is purely an AR or Augmented Reality- which will be functional just like an expandable world. It will be possible for everyone to keep growing, but everything will be purely linked. So if you are willing to establish a business in Metaverse, stop overthinking. Go ahead creating a compelling concept capable of addressing the concerns of people with calculated risks.

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