NEW YORK—Manufacturers in a variety of industries are slowly adopting extended reality (XR) technologies like smart glasses and virtual reality headsets, according to a recent survey conducted by ABI Research. More than two-thirds of manufacturers claim to have some level of XR activity.

“The value of XR to organizations has been known for years, especially in areas like training, remote workforce enablement and collaboration,” explains Eric Abbruzzese, research director at ABI Research. “However, the barriers to that value have also been well-known and remain. Device cost, integration concerns and confusion around offerings are most common.”

While XR is in the early stages of adoption, Abbruzzese says the technology can improve equipment performance and quality levels. Other benefits include remote maintenance, interactive training and reliable knowledge capture or sharing. 

At the same time, people and process barriers are common pain points around XR cited in the survey. A lack of time to plan, along with a general lack of expertise in XR, has delayed potential investment and adoption. Both were ranked highly among respondents as barriers.

“The XR market has seen plenty of ups and downs over the past decade, which has hindered trust and understanding in the market despite proven value,” notes Abbruzzese. “A lack of clarity among available platforms and paths to market hold back potential adoption.

“However, the growth of related digital transformation technologies, especially digital twins and machine vision, is a boon for XR and vice versa,” says Abbruzzese. “Over time, a more holistic view of visual workforce enablement will take hold, rather than a focus on individual technologies, and XR will be an increasing portion of that offering.”