Bill Gates 2022 predicts: virtual conferences will erupt in the meta-universe in the next 2 to 3 years

Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft and the fourth richest man in the world, published his year-end review of 2021 on December 7. Although he regards this year as the most unusual and difficult year, he still looks forward to 2022. There are many reasons for optimism, including the hope that the epidemic will be brought under control and our more digital future.

He wrote: In the past two years, we have seen certain services have grown by leaps and bounds and gained faster and wider adoption, such as ordering groceries online, meeting via video chat, etc., which has accelerated the process that would have taken years or even longer. The completed change.

"We have seen new innovations, and I think this is just the tip of the iceberg in the next few years."

Gates believes that over time, the technologies we use will get better and we will get more feedback on how to improve them, and predicts that we will see major changes in three areas.

Most virtual conferences will be transferred to the meta universe

Gates said that the first and most important thing is: office work.

The pandemic has completely changed the company's perception of productivity and presence in the workplace. Once independent ways of working: brainstorming, team meetings, casual conversations in the corridors, the boundaries between reality and reality are collapsing.

We see that as companies and employees adapt to new ways of working, the structures that we believe are essential to office culture will change and will intensify in the coming years.

"My expectations of productivity have been subverted. I see many opportunities to rethink things and find out what works and what does not work."

Gates also predicted that in the next two to three years, most virtual meetings will shift from 2D images to Metaverse, a 3D space with personal digital avatars. He described what this future looks like: users will eventually use personal avatars to meet people in a virtual space that replicates the feeling of being in a real room with them. For this, you need to use devices such as VR goggles and motion capture gloves to accurately capture your expressions, body language, and voice.

Gates said that the second area where we will see the lasting impact of digitalization is education.

Schools will resume face-to-face teaching, but use digital tools to improve the way children learn. If you are a student, the content can be more interactive and personalized, helping you focus on areas that need more help; if you are a teacher, you can have a deeper understanding of student performance.

The last area is healthcare. During the pandemic, telemedicine is very popular, and we see more and more people choosing virtual appointments instead of face-to-face diagnosis; these technologies have become better and better, and I expect huge numbers over time. improvement of.

Microsoft actively enters the meta universe

According to reports, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (Satya Nadella) said at the Ignite online conference in early November that Microsoft will explore meta-universe technology and join the digital world with a series of other big-name brands and enterprises. .

Soon after, Microsoft (Microsoft) announced its cooperation with Meta. The two companies will integrate Workplace and Microsoft Teams. In 2022, Teams video conferences will be transferred to Workplace for simultaneous use.

Microsoft also predicted that Teams will launch a new 3D avatar/avatar to promote the development of the meta-universe environment. Users do not need to wear a VR device to use them. These avatars can represent the user in 2D and 3D meetings. If they don’t want to turn on the webcam, they can choose the animated version of the virtual avatar/avatar.

Jared Spataro, vice president of Microsoft Teams, said: People now face a dilemma when participating in digital meetings. They must choose whether to turn on the camera or turn off the camera. Turning on the camera means you are standing in the front and in the middle, and people will see your every move. Turning off the camera means that you will hardly make any social actions, and it is difficult to give people the feeling of being fully engaged in the meeting.

In addition, Microsoft also foresees the launch of a new tool, Dynamics 365 Connected Spaces, to help managers gain an in-depth understanding of how customers move and interact in spaces such as retail stores and employees on factory floors, as well as how to optimize health and safety management in a mixed work environment. People can interact in any space such as retail stores, factory floors, etc. through artificial intelligence-driven models and observation data.

The Bloomberg industry research report predicts that Metaverse will reach a market size of US$800 billion in 2024, and PwC predicts that the market size of Metaverse will reach US$1.5 trillion in 2030. The huge industry potential has prompted major companies to join the battlefield.