Thailand has the potential to become a leading country in the metaverse as a variety of industries have already adopted this virtual realm to support their business, says professional service provider Accenture Thailand.
According to the consulting firm, several sectors are likely to be first adopters of the metaverse, especially healthcare as the country is striving to become a regional healthcare hub, powered by artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, edge computing and extended reality (XR).
Patama Chantaruck, country managing director of Accenture Thailand, said other early adopters of advanced technologies include banking, property, manufacturing, retail and tourism.
For the metaverse, the country holds high potential to be a regional leader, with the healthcare sector widely recognised for its service quality and tech applications, she said.
"The next generation of the internet is unfolding and will drive a new wave of digital transformation far greater than what we've seen to date, transforming the way we all live and work," said Ms Patama.
The metaverse is an evolving and expanding continuum of tech and experience reshaping businesses, from reality to virtual in integrated fashion, from 2D to 3D, and from cloud and AI to XR, blockchain, edge computing and more, she said.
"One critical challenge is how to monetise products and services in the metaverse for companies. Enterprises should start today and evolve rapidly as the metaverse matures," said Ms Patama.
Accenture's recent report, "Meet Me in the Metaverse: The Continuum of Technology and Experience Reshaping Business", surveyed more than 4,600 executives in business and technology sectors as well as 24,000 consumers across 23 industries in 35 countries, including Thailand.
According to the survey, 71% of global executives believe the metaverse will have a positive impact on their organisation and 42% believe it will be a breakthrough or transformational.
Some 72% of Thai executives agree the metaverse will have a positive impact on their organisation, but only 26% believe it will be a breakthrough or transformational.
Accenture also unveiled four tech trends in 2022 that companies will need to address for the metaverse journey.
The first is called "WebMe: Putting the Me in Metaverse", which involves efforts to create an immersive digital world.
The metaverse is poised to reshape the internet, rather than it being a disparate collection of sites and apps, the report said.
The metaverse will lead to a persistent 3D environment in which moving from one place to another will be as simple as walking from one room to another, said Accenture.
The second trend is called "Programmable World", in which emerging technologies, such as 5G, ambient computing, augmented reality and smart digital environments, will reshape not just how people engage with worlds, but redefine "everything built in it, how people sense and interact, and the control they have over it", said the report.
The third trend is "the Unreal", in which companies and consumers shift away from considering what is real versus fake, to what is authentic, not just in terms of a company's content and algorithms, but its entire brand.
The last trend is "Computing the Impossible", in which the emergence of a new class of machines empowers organisations to stretch the boundaries of what computers can solve, said the report.
