As real and virtual worlds continue to overlap, customers are drawn in by the metaverse and its potential of highly functional and immersive environments. Conceptions of the metaverse may seem fanciful, but the metaverse promises to be the next revolution of the internet, says Denise Zheng, managing director for the Metaverse Continuum Business Group and the lead for Responsible Metaverse at Accenture.

“We typically think of it as an evolving and kind of constantly expanding continuum of technologies, but also use cases that span from the consumer to the worker and across the enterprise that take users from reality to the virtual and then back in a very integrated fashion,” says Zheng.

This episode is part of our “Building the future” podcast series. It’s a multi-episode series focusing on how organizations, researchers, and innovators are meeting our evolving global challenges. We understand the importance of inclusive conversations and have chosen to highlight the work of women on the cutting edge of technological innovation, and business excellence.

The elements of community-building the metaverse looks to invoke will require enterprises to adapt emerging technologies like Web3 and blockchain, meet customers where they are, and improve employee capabilities. But virtual environments are not new. Rather, people have been online networking since the late 1970s, says T.L. Taylor, a professor of comparative media studies at MIT.

“We've actually had versions of this—folks coming together online to play, to create, to communicate, and to build community—for decades now. We're really just seeing the latest iteration of that,” says Taylor.