We live in two parallel realities, one of atoms and one of bits.
When we shop, we either go into a store or pull up a webpage. We work remotely or in person. We collaborate with people and computers, but usually not at the same time. Transitioning between them can be challenging, confusing or impossible.
That’s all changing. The next wave of business transformation will shift from building isolated digital capabilities to creating the foundations of a new reality—a shared reality that seamlessly combines our physical lives of atoms and our digital ones of bits. The goal is not incremental improvement, but a step change. The true value of this convergence is in creating something fundamentally new. Look at generative AI – many people are using it to generate purely digital images and content, but we already see how it will shape the future of science, enterprise data, how we design and manufacture products, and so much more.
For years the guiding pillar of enterprise innovation has been taking processes, even whole parts of the organization, and digitizing them. And while we’ve built a rich and meaningful digital world, we haven’t really reconciled it with the physical one.
In our Technology Vision last year, we called out the Metaverse Continuum as the next big step after digital transformation. The metaverse is a watershed moment for the convergence of atoms and bits, accelerating the path to a singular shared reality.
We’ve arrived at an exciting frontier of technology innovation for businesses, one where we’re not just digitizing but putting that digital foundation to work. But it’s also critical to realize that while metaverse, digital twins, augmented reality and robotics are powerful ways to get started, they’re just the beginning. Fusing digital and physical is not only generating new products and services; it’s the force behind a new era of scientific research. Leaders are creating the next set of tools and disruptions to rewrite how the world works. And what’s become clear is that when atoms and bits collide, truly new possibilities emerge.