Welcome to the Industrial Metaverse ... It Might Actually Change Everything

Most of us know the metaverse as a science-fiction imagined place where might create an avatar and GO to do virtual things. Siemens' vision for the metaverse is much different, as CEO Dr. Roland Busch noted in a standing-room-only keynote presentation to open CES where he promoted the industrial metaverse as the key to bridging the gap between the virtual world and the real one. The presentation brought examples from racing to factory design in order to bring to life the idea of "digital twins" as a way to create fully immersive and testable 3D models for buildings, products, and even champagne.

The result can lower production time and cost and enable a whole new generation of things. In a place filled with people pitching ideas like how their robotic stir fry machine is going to revolutionize cooking (an actual product), it's rare to see an idea that actually does live up to the claim that it will change the world. Given that 40% of the world's factories already run on Siemens technology, this industrial metaverse concept really does have the potential to really change the way everything is made. In many ways, it is already doing so.