Doha: Transforming businesses to the next level with Extended Reality (XR) which includes Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Mixed Reality (MR) and other immersive technologies that merge the physical and virtual worlds, is a priority in the region for an advanced knowledge-based economy. It is imperative to empower digital innovation and transform the way people work and interact with the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through end-to-end digital transformation of their value chain, said an official during a virtual event.
Addressing the virtual Qatar XR Tech Summit 2021 “Transforming Digital Business & Services to the Next Level” hosted by The Rendezvous Experts (TREX) recently, Waleed Ali, Public Sector Innovation Digital Government Specialist at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) spoke on the topic “Revolutionising Government Services Experience through XR Technology”. He discussed the capabilities, possibilities and outcome of Extended Reality (XR) technology in business and shared the best practices to create industry standards, and connect companies, brands and leaders to grow businesses, increase productivity, efficiency and overall performances.
Ali said: “In Qatar there is a huge interest in innovation which is one of the pillars we are building our government on”. Speaking about XR in government services road map, he added: “Government entities is one of the key stakeholders in innovation ecosystem, so building partnerships with other stakeholders like private sector, academia, entrepreneurs is important because having this kind of sustainable innovation ecosystem for the private sector is important”.
Ali noted that XR technology will bring new customer and user experiences. “This kind of technology will be used in everyday life from 2025-2027, and the users of this technology will be called ‘Digital by default generation’. Efficiency and engaging workforce training delivery will also help governments to battle future pandemics as this technology will bring healthcare to evaluate healthcare providers. It will also bring new experience as countries and governments will try to promote culture, heritage and tourism in the county in new ways which were not accessible before,” he said.
Ali cited examples to highlight how XR technology will revolutionise government services as government service and applications forms will be accessed, viewed and completed through a variety of AR devices.
He said: “Digital government services will become interactive. Instead of filling applications using smartphones or keyboards, data will be fetched from the sources in the government entities and the interactions will be based on air gestures or voice where you accept or select next service wearing a headset and by browsing from level to level. This will become an interesting experience dealing with government services online and it will be a new way for digital government services based on the human senses”.
Ali added that extended reality (XR) is the next big thing in technology. “Digital services have now reached to a level that even in government, we are building our digital development government strategy around user centric and experience. This is reaching to a level as it is dealing with human senses like XR technology.
“The technology has already made its way to our smartphones which helps to build a very real augmented reality scene. It is anticipated that augmented reality market will reach $26bn by 2025 and the smart glasses sales are expected to be worth $33.16bn by 2027. This gives us indication that users will be expecting this technology in everyday use,” he explained.
Ali also shed light on how citizens and businesses can use XR technology to see what the future planned public works projects will look like. “This technology will bring citizen engagement as citizens will be able to see how the future government projects will look like and they will have an opportunity to give their feedback and enhancement to make the projects more valuable. This will evolve citizen engagement in the government plans for future projects,” he added.
According to the World Economic Forum, one of the richest uses of AR is to enhance places, such as historic buildings, castles, monuments and heritage sites. Ali added: “For attracting foreign investment in any country, they have to showcase their heritage, culture and tourism. As the tourism sector is very important to the economy, the use of this technology will help visitors from outside the country use augmented reality explanations about important places or buildings”.
