It goes without saying that the global pandemic has transformed many aspects of our lives, bringing us closer to the digital world and increasing the amount of time we spend online. This spike has revealed the growing importance of digital environments such as augmented and virtual reality that take users into an exciting experience within a virtual world.
The impressive capabilities, mobility and convenience of these technologies attract both consumers and tech giants like Epic Games, Roblox, Microsoft and Nvidia. Facebook has also embraced virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) to create its own digital space, the so-called “metaverse” where people can get together, learn, work, play games, shop and even do business in a virtual environment and without leaving their homes.
But what is the metaverse, and what will it look like? Understanding the metaverse is really difficult as it is still in the early stages of development. But we see that the metaverse trend is evolving in the tech sector with a predicted $800 billion market opportunity by 2024 and with Facebook taking the first steps in making the metaverse a reality.
As a futuristic tech concept combining different elements of virtual reality and other technologies, the metaverse will most likely encompass large amounts of data, many parts of which will be generated by artificial intelligence. So making the metaverse experience work will require the extensive use of AI technologies to collect and analyze data, learn from prior patterns and assist with producing new creative processes and applications.
What role could AI play in the metaverse of tomorrow? In this article, let’s look into virtual shopping, one of the potential AI use cases that could become part of the metaverse concept.
More Than Virtual Shopping
The ability to shop in the metaverse will be one of the most exciting possibilities. That is why many fashion brands are looking for ways to get involved in the metaverse vision to offer real-time, more immersive and interactive experiences.
Virtual shopping experiences in the metaverse with the integration of AI technologies have the advantage of being able to track a customer’s activity, purchase history, taste and demographic profile and use this data to provide new and more personalized clothes recommendations and encourage purchases. Shopping beyond space and time will enable complete accessibility, allowing shoppers to wander through virtual stores, try on clothes online through a 3D fitting room and even get a 360-degree view of what outfits look like. Customers will even be able to buy a new car while taking an adrenaline-pumping test drive, get a beauty consultation from a personal advisor and try on accessories, sunglasses and makeup to check how the item looks and feels.
Shopping With AI Avatars
Have you ever created your digital avatar in a virtual space to represent yourself? The virtual shopping experience wouldn’t be that exciting without the 3D digital avatars that will use artificial intelligence to render real-world human features and movements in the metaverse space. One of the cool things about digital avatars is they can be customized in any way to look like their owner, be it the clothing, haircut or anything else. You can buy stuff for your virtual avatar, dress it and personalize it to represent a realistic image of you. The metaverse opens up other opportunities for digital fashion as there are already brands that create digital clothes to be worn only by avatars in the metaverse.
AI-powered avatars will be an important element of the metaverse experience as they will express our identities and represent who we are in the virtual world. The use of avatars will not only facilitate shopping experiences with friends but also with sales assistants who can lead you through the virtual store, provide advice and assist with the sales process. You can even walk into a virtual store through your digital avatar, check out the offers at the store and pick the items for purchase. As an emerging digital space, the metaverse will create even a more unified experience, enabling us to instantly travel between different virtual worlds.
Generation Of New Virtual Clothes
Along with the rising interest in virtual clothes, artificial intelligence in virtual reality will offer even richer experiences. Through the limitless opportunities of AI technology, it will be possible to create virtual wardrobes where users can put their existing clothes and get new and more personalized outfit recommendations. Similarly, AI store assistants will be able to understand and learn your shopping habits and come up with unique style tips based on your previous purchase history.
As AI technologies evolve, they are going to enhance creativity and provide never-before-seen shopping experiences in the metaverse. The growing digital fashion trend will fuel the development of outfit generator apps as a new market for metaverse fashionistas to explore. AI-based outfit generator systems will create virtual clothes uniquely, different from those that exist in the physical world. With AI algorithms getting creative in generating new digital outfits, people in the metaverse would be exposed to see completely new fashion experiences.
Virtual shopping, digital avatars and outfit generator apps are just a few engaging experiences that will, for better or worse, be a part of the metaverse space. What’s in the future for the metaverse shopping experience? While the metaverse is still a long way off, it’s still unclear whether we’ll be able to wander into virtual stores, use our digital avatars to purchase clothes and get style recommendations from AI store assistants in a different world. But we can expect that the new era of the metaverse opens up possibilities that are already being embraced by AI and advanced technologies to create a more engaging shopping environment and help drive the realization of the metaverse concept in general.
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