79% of MEA business professionals are Metaverse ready

A new study commissioned by Ciena found that 79% of Middle East business professionals surveyed are ready to use virtual reality-based platforms, such as the metaverse, for work, to replace current video conferencing options. Additionally, a staggering 94% of respondents in the Middle East said they would feel at ease holding official business meetings in a virtual reality setting, such as those with HR.

The survey, which polled views among 15,000 respondents across the Middle East, North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia also uncovered some regional differences.  

According to the study, 82% of business professionals in the Middle East feel comfortable about their company introducing VR into their work processes. When asked about the disadvantages and worries of virtual work environments, 33% of respondents from the UAE worry that they won’t be able to read in-person emotions, 27% of respondents from the KSA are concerned about security, and 22% of respondents from Egypt said that erratic network connectivity may make it difficult to work in the metaverse.

“There is a growing appetite for more immersive collaboration tools like the metaverse in the Middle East,” commented Azz-Eddine Mansouri, General Manager of Sales at Ciena Middle East. “However, network reliability and security are paramount for these new work applications to strive.”

Respondents from the middle east also showed an interest in using new immersive platforms for customer-based tasks. For example, shopping is one of the motivators in countries such as UAE (57%) and KSA (47%). In Egypt, 51% of respondents found the metaverse more suitable for work.

About 29% of business professionals would select avatars that reflect their own self, while 21% would take on a different image depending on the situation and 20% would choose a more idealistic version for an avatar for themselves. Coming to choosing a pop culture avatar only 15% of respondents were positive of that.

Despite growing interest amongst working professionals, 31% of respondents believe network reliability is preventing businesses from aggressively moving forward while 34% feel the technology is not readily available. Despite these reservations, 40% of professionals believe their company will transition from a traditional/static collaboration environment to a more immersive and virtual reality-based environment within the next two years, and 82% of professionals see the metaverse becoming a part of existing work practices.

Mansouri concluded: “Given the Middle East region has some of the world’s highest rates of tech adoption and digital penetration, virtual reality worlds will start to play a bigger role in the way we work and interact.  The success of these virtual platforms depends heavily on having an underlying infrastructure offers low latency and supports higher bandwidths.”