Work in the Metaverse: Just Imagine the Possibilities

Immersive environments also raise questions about diversity, equity and inclusion. To what extent will companies consider cultural diversity when it comes to avatars, for example? Do avatars have to look like employees, or can they be modeled after imaginary creatures like dragons? Organizations should consider imposing restrictions on avatar appearance, similar to office dress codes, Rivet says.

As for cybersecurity, there are many more ways for hackers to exploit a virtual space. A bad actor could "literally change your reality by manipulating how things appear in the metaverse," Pearlman says.

The immersive, 3D nature of the metaverse will bring new legal challenges. There have already been incidents of alleged sexual harassment involving the metaverse. For example, last fall, a beta tester of Meta's virtual-reality social media platform, Horizon Worlds, reported she had been groped by a stranger on the platform.

The ability to identify and authenticate both people and avatars in the metaverse will be crucial, and not only so you can prevent bad behavior. It is now possible for avatars that look, sound and act like human beings to be driven by artificial intelligence. Should these "meta-humans" be required to reveal that they are AI bots? "People need to know who they are interacting with," Rivet notes.

The metaverse also enables new ways to steal intellectual property and raises new operational and privacy issues, especially in Europe where data privacy rules are strict, says Illenberger, who is based in Munich.

For now, closed environments are the safest path. They not only give companies control but also sidestep the question of interoperability. Metaverse vendors have no incentive to adopt uniform standards, Illenberger says, because they are all trying to establish their own horizontally integrated ecosystems. "The big tech companies are aware that this market opportunity is huge, probably much bigger than the smartphone market," he says. "All of them want to dominate it in the future."

Take This On-Ramp to the Metaverse

That's why it makes sense to use big tech as an on-ramp to the metaverse. These vendors are likely to provide some guardrails for customers, especially regarding cybersecurity. Yet vendors still enable enterprises to set their own policies. Microsoft Teams, for instance, will soon include a bit of the metaverse, says J.P. Gownder, vice president and principal analyst with Forrester, a research and business consultancy.

"Anybody who is using Teams will by the end of this year find some components of Mesh [Microsoft's metaverse platform] woven directly into Teams. So, 250-million-plus Teams users will be exposed to some of the functionality we associate with employee metaverse collaboration," he says. "You'll be able to have an avatar and a 3D conference room space. You'll also have collaborative digital whiteboarding, where you can have multiple people standing next to each other working on a project on the same whiteboard." Other vendors are likely to follow suit, he adds.

Meanwhile, business leaders should consider the extent to which the metaverse makes sense for their organizations and prepare. Hiring was a priority for respondents to the PwC survey. For technical skills, gaming may be a particularly fertile ground.

"The metaverse is largely concentrated in the gaming space today," Justice says. Some companies are already advertising and branding themselves within gaming platforms, he notes. "It's a place to recruit because it's where young talent spends a lot of time."

Even more important, organizations should designate an executive to lead the strategy, Rivet says. "Companies need to have someone whose job is to stay on top of these trends, both in terms of the technology and what their competition is doing," she says. "Because of all the unknown risks, there should be one point of contact and coordination for metaverse initiatives." This person should head a multidisciplinary team that includes representatives from technology, security, regulatory compliance, accounting and human resources, she says.

In PwC's survey, 32 percent of executives said they planned to hire or appoint a metaverse leader. Some 51 percent said they had already designated roles that focus on metaverse activity, although not exclusively.

Meanwhile, no one really knows when—or even whether—the metaverse will move from a hyped-up idea to a practical tool for business. Predictions range from a few years to a decade.

Gownder thinks it will take at least 10 years, even for enterprise applications. He cautions against investing too much, too quickly. "Use the metaverse to solve the problems you have," he says. "Don't make the metaverse itself into a problem you need to solve."

Tam Harbert is a freelance technology and business reporter based in the Washington, D.C., area.

Explore Further

SHRM provides advice and resources to help business leaders better navigate the new challenges of the metaverse.