Augmented Reality (AR) is one of the technologies that nowadays has experienced a boom in its expansion and that is showing to have an impact not only in industrial fields but in people’s lives in many ways. This technology aims to enhance one’s experience by involving overlaying visual, auditory, or other sensory information onto the world. Based on a report by ResearchAndMarkets.com’s the AR market was valued at USD 14.7 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach USD 88.4 billion by 2026. Here we can add that the key factors driving the growth of the AR market include surging demand for AR devices and applications in healthcare, growing demand for AR in retail and e-commerce sectors due to COVID-19, rising investments in the AR market, increasing demand for AR devices and technology in the global automotive industry, and many other industries as well. As AR technology finds new applications day by day, saves costs, and helps to keep the business continuity, demand and investment in AR will continue to grow. AR application is diverse, so let’s see below some of its existing applications in emerging market industries:

Many businesses operating in the automotive industry have successfully embraced new technologies such as AR, as a need to change the way of operations and to build a bridge of collaboration between experts and field workers. Nowadays with the help of AR-based remote support integrated into smart glasses experts are able to make live annotations that overlay into real-world during work, field workers can work hands-free without distractions while receiving instructions on how to assemble a specific machine. With this AR-based remote collaboration, the accuracy of field workers can go up to 96% and they are able to work 30% faster. In addition, AR remote support has demonstrated great potential for fieldworkers' training. Connected in real-time with an experienced expert, field workers from different locations all around the world, are trained for different assembly tasks before they start performing their work. Training field workers to perform their job correctly have productive results in fewer operator errors that eventually cause slowdowns and downtime.

Given all the many benefits that remote support offers, the manufacturing industry is utilizing AR technology in order to stay relevant, innovative, and competitive. AR-remote support is one of the main tools that help operating businesses in the manufacturing industry to achieve functional goals such as reducing costs, improving efficiency, increasing safety, and expanding production capacity. In manufacturing businesses, production downtime due to machine breakdowns is a serious threat and it could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Machinery malfunctions need to be prevented to minimize manufacturing downtime. But with the help of AR remote support, the field workers from received instructions on their smart devices can quickly visually identify the problem and resolve it or even prevent the downtime from ever occurring. Businesses of the manufacturing industry through implementing AR remote support monitor, inspect, update, and repair their machinery, by this, are able to create the right atmosphere for meeting goals to help to eliminate machinery downtime.

Innovative technologies such as AR enable logistics and transportation businesses to optimize efficiency by automating and standardizing the workflows. Using AR can enhance warehouses’ maintenance, improve packaging and order picking processes, and reduce the time spent on transportation and delivery. To lower the error rates and ease the workers’ decision-making process in logistics, it is necessary to use technologies like AR and simplify tasks. It will also clarify most of the logistic business steps like assembly, storage, sorting, inventory, order picking, transportation, and more.

AR applications are already enabling oil and gas companies to transform their operational processes by reducing expenditures, enhancing remote collaboration, and helping to stay competitive in the market. Considering all the features and benefits, the implementation of AR in oil and gas operations is proving to be really efficient and indeed can transform the sector. Due to the harmful environment in which field workers are exposed, they are prone to health damage that can lead to loss of life. Through expert guidance field, workers perform their tasks in safe environments.

The tremendous growth of AR is being experienced especially in the healthcare sector, creating business opportunities for companies with AR expertise. In the healthcare field, the potential of AR is manifested in the ability that enable the presentation of 3D medical models in real-time at remote locations. The AR-based remote support can help doctors diagnose and treat patients accurately. With access to real-time patient data, they can perform functions better than before. In addition, by ignoring distance and boundaries AR brings the most specialized surgeons to the same operating room alongside the specialists who will perform the operation. Furthermore, doctors can record video and audio while examining a patient and can use them at a later time to train their students across the globe.

AR knows no boundaries but plays an important role in the operation of businesses despite the many and quite difficult challenges. This technology can be seen as an innovative solution to be adopted and that provides many benefits for businesses operating in different industrial fields. The power of AR connects experts with field workers around the world with real-time data, guidance, and the power of remote support. The impact of this technology is an excellent example of how the operational process of different industry types has been transformed and how the quality and productivity of work have increased.

5 Major Industries Benefiting From Augmented Reality Technology was originally published in AR/VR Journey: Augmented & Virtual Reality Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.