Apple’s newest tech release, the Vision Pro is shaking up the corporate sector. Defining a new future of AR/VR in the form of spatial computing, this clever headset has the ability to transform social connection, entertainment, and of course, productivity.
Combining the powers of augmented reality, virtual reality, and AI, Apple has crafted its new headset based on the goal of each user being able to do almost anything from the comfort of their home.
While the tech-infused productivity tool fetches a hefty price of up to $3500, it is likely to do wonders for the world of remote HR. Transforming remote recruitment and pioneering a new era of personalized development, Apple’s Vision Pro is set to create the most realistic onboarding process yet for remote workers and is deemed an even more immersive training tool than the Metaverse.
“The possibilities of immersive learning are mind-blowing. Imagine being able to get biometric data as people watch your content. Tracking eye movements and pupil dilation could tell us the emotional reaction to the idea being shared. The pupils will dilate if we expose subjects to difficult tasks.” says Abhijit Bhaduri, former onboarding manager at Microsoft.
The question is, are the benefits worth the price point?
It’s no secret that the pandemic pushed the working world into a new technologically dominated era. As we swapped office spaces for remote setups, businesses began to adapt to using online collaboration tools, immersive aids, and AI-powered automation.
While we are now just beginning to creep back into the physical office in 2024, there’s no doubt that technology will continue to improve our efficiency at work.
For example, businesses that have introduced ChatGPT to their workforce since the release of the AI-powered language bot have seen a staggering 66% increase in productivity in just two years.
The best AI tools on the market offer professionals the chance to automate repetitive workflows, predict financial decisions, and even enhance creative projects.
For HR teams, in particular, industry-based technological advances are helping streamline the hiring process. Saving HR professionals the time of sieving through stacks of applications, AI tools like Skillate and TurboHire screen resumes automatically, choosing just a handful of the best candidates to be reviewed in person.
While AI currently dominates the market for business technology, could combining AI with immersive tech be the next step for businesses looking to improve their productivity?
Do you remember the Microsoft Hololens? Or the Google Glass? When released, these VR-powered headsets were sold as the ultimate company accessory for smart training, remote recruitment, and productivity boosts.
However, when it came down to it, many companies believed that the price point of the tech outweighed the benefits for the team, with most recording that the initial hype quickly faded in the first few months of use.
So what’s different about the Apple Vision Pro? Should corporate teams invest?
According to Peter Rokkos, Human Resource Management professor at Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, “the release of Vision Pro will push virtual and augmented reality headsets into the mainstream for business uses.”
“Apple’s not always the first company to come out with a product in this space. But they do make it so simple and innovative, able for my grandma to be able to use them, that all of a sudden, they become popularly accepted,” he says.
Apple knows how to refine pre-existing innovations. With the ability to streamline their tech like no other, they aim to create a headset that takes little to no learning and can seamlessly integrate itself into any task.
Some of these streamlined features include:
Apple’s Vision Pro hopes to simply enhance how people do their jobs, rather than transform it completely. This differs from meeting rooms in the metaverse, where remote employees appear as an avatar in a computer-generated world. Instead, Apple ensures that you enter your remote meeting as yourself, simply providing you with a digital tool kit at your fingertips instead.
“The idea that I can have a whole digital world that exists in the real world, that feels bigger than AR or VR. I have the Oculus, but it feels like a toy, whereas this feels like a glimpse into the future of what computing could be like,” claims tech YouTuber Casey Neistat.
Let’s have a closer look at how it plans to shake up the HR industry in 2024.
According to new research by Apollo Technical, a whopping 90% of workers expect to work from home at least once a week by 2025.
As the global workforce becomes more digitally native than ever before, tools like Apple’s Vision Pro could improve a number of HR tasks in a remote working world.
Human resources is the cornerstone of any successful business. Responsible for the hiring, onboarding, and wellness of employees, a company’s HR team are the people that employees feel like they can go to for support, guidance, and personal development.
Since being ripped away from the office, HR workers have had to learn how to manage a remote team. It’s therefore no surprise that many are struggling to upkeep those same levels of human connection. This has made recruitment harder, as well as maintaining employee wellness and productivity from far away.
Here are some of the ways Apple’s Vision Pro aims to change that.
First up, let’s take a look at recruitment. Apple’s Vision Pro aims to add a new element to the modern-day remote recruitment strategy.
For example, using the Apple Vision Pro, HR teams can conduct interviews with multiple screens of information in front of their eyes.
Better still, for hybrid positions, candidates could even be given a 3D tour around their new office simply by walking and recording your field of view.
Embracing its AR capabilities, Vision Pro can also improve a HR team’s DEI hiring strategy by providing all candidates with avatars that display no personal indicators or information, for a physically anonymous interview process. This makes the hiring process more inclusive.
Apple’s Vision Pro also aims to make onboarding more engaging for new employees. Instead of clicking through endless slides and watching company videos, onborders can meet their team in real-time, and complete immersive onboarding tasks to help learn the ropes.
Since immersive technology has advanced, plenty of companies have embraced exciting VR-powered training.
Take KFC for example, in 2017, the fast-food company created its own escape room-inspired training zone using the Oculus Rift headset.
Infusing their development training with fun mini-games and detailed eLearning, the company raked in new levels of employee productivity, finding that immersive training helped staff members pick up the job at a quicker pace.
However, the Apple Vision Pro aims to take personal development to a brand new level with the introduction of virtual workshops and tactile experiences all from the comfort of your home.
“Imagine overlaying a digital experience on physical mannequins for medical training or a real cockpit for flight training, blending tactile experiences of physical simulators with a diverse array of virtual scenarios,” says Anders Gronstedt writer for Chief Learning Officer.
Did you know that a whopping two in five people working from home say that their mental well-being has declined since they made the switch?
Steve Anevski, CEO of the staffing platform Upshift found that “In a remote workplace, work-life balance gets disrupted due to long working hours and no communication, which could lead to burnout if not addressed in a timely manner.”
For HR teams struggling to manage remote wellness, the Vision Pro could offer new avenues for success.
With a number of apps available on the headset, such as the mediation app Helium, employees can easily take short breaks to engage in a relaxing immersive environment that takes them away from their work stress.
Apple’s own mindfulness app could also help lead new wellness sessions for remote employees, as it offers guided yoga and meditation sessions that the whole team can get involved in.
Introducing these wellness experiences as a remote HR team could help reduce burnout and maintain mental health, promoting a happier and healthier work environment.
While the Apple Vision Pro offers undoubtable benefits to an HR team, could it still be too pricey to scale moving forward?
Retailing at $3499, the tech is still too expensive for most corporate companies to invest in on a wide scale. However, experts suggest that the price will soon come down, following the trends of Microsoft’s Hololens and the Oculus headset.
Looking to the future, Apple could be on track to release a number of generations of the Vision Pro, as more employees embrace the technology on a day-to-day basis, the chances are that new work-adaptable models will be built, and refined for ultimate productivity.
“You can envision a future five or ten years down the road where they get smaller and smaller, right? The fifth generation of Apple’s Vision Pros are going to be a lot smaller and a lot more compact,” says Rokkos.
As many business leaders weigh up the price with the possibilities, will your team choose to invest, or put the immersive tech hype to rest?
